From 1972 to 1987, sixty-seven patients with esophageal cancer were treated with radiotherapy over 50 Gy. The actuarial survival at 5 years and the median survival in all patients were 5.3% and 7 months, respectively. Survival was analyzed according to the intent of radiotherapy and the tumor response. The 5 year survival and the median survival were 5.6% and 8 months for the group of radiotherapy with curative intent, whereas they were 0% and 7 months for the group of non-curative radiotherapy (p less than 0.02). The median survivals of absolutely curable, relatively curable, relatively non-curable and absolutely non-curable group were 13, 9, 5 and 3 months, respectively. And survivals of the first two groups were significantly longer than those of the last two groups. The survival in patients with distant metastasis was worse than in those who had no distant metastasis (p less than 0.05). In the fifty-five patients with no distant metastasis, the significant prognostic factors were performance status and radiation dose (TDF).