Abstract: Objective:To investigate the clinical application value of serum thymidine kinase 1(TK1) test in the diagnosis and treatment of esophageal cancer.Methods:The TK1 level of 158 cases with esophageal cancer before operation(esophageal cancer group),40 cases with benign esophageal disease(benign disease group) and 50 healthy people(control group) were measured by enhanced chemiluminescence.In the esophageal cancer group,28 patients were randomly selected for following-up,their TK1 level were measured at 7 days and 1 month after operation.Results:The TK1 level before the operation and its positive rate in the esophageal cancer group were higher than those in the benign disease group and control group(P0.01),but the difference between the benign disease group and control group was not statistically significant(P0.05).Compared with preoperation,the TK1 levels of the 28 patients followed-up did not obviously decreased at 7 days(P0.05),but it decresed obviously in 1 month after operation in the esophageal cancer group(P0.01).Conclusions:The TK 1 test has certain clinical application value in the diagnosis,prognosis and curative effects of esophageal cancer.