Objective To investigate the expressions of PTEN and p21 genes in Hazak patients with esophageal can-cer. Methods The expressions of PTEN and p21 genes were detected by RT-PCR in 48 samples (cancer tissues and nor-mal tissues) of patients with esophageal cancer. The relationship between the expressions of PTEN and p21 genes, tumor dif-ferentiation, TNM stage, clinical phase and lymph node metastasis were analyzed. Results The positive rates of PTEN gene were 75%and 45.8%in cancer and distant normal tissues. The expression of PTEN was significantly higher in cancer tis-sues than that of distant normal tissues (χ2=8.537,P＜0.05). The positive rates of p21 gene were 95.8%and 97.9%in cancer and distant normal tissues, and no significant difference between them (χ2=0.344,P>0.05). There was no correlation be-tween expressions of PTEN and p21and the tumor differentiation, the depth of invasion and lymph node metastasis in esopha-geal cancer. Conclusion PTEN and p21 genes are not the primary genes for the carcinogenesis of esophageal cancer in Hazak.