目前,病理分期仍然是分期的“金标准”。尽管食管钡餐检查及食管镜检查,能对食管癌患者作出初步的大体形态学描述及准确的病理学诊断,被认为是食管癌最基本的检查诊断方法,但由于其本身方法及设备的局限性,仅能对食管腔内作出评价,而不能对腔外作出准确的评估。要了解准确的肿瘤浸润深度、区域淋巴结的转移情况及潜在的远处转移分期,就必须借助于颈部B超、CT、正电子发射断层显象(PET/CT)、 Currently, the pathological staging is still staging “gold standard ”. Although the esophageal barium meal examination and esophagoscopy can make a preliminary general morphological description and accurate pathological diagnosis of esophageal cancer patients is considered to be the most basic examination of esophageal cancer diagnosis, but due to its own limitations of methods and equipment , Can only evaluate the esophageal lumen, but can not make an accurate assessment of extraluminal. To understand the exact depth of tumor invasion, regional lymph node metastasis and potential distant metastasis staging, we must rely on the neck B ultrasound, CT, positron emission tomography (PET / CT)