Objective To explore the molecular mechanism through detecting methylation status in esophageal carcinoma and Barrett's esophagus.Methods The methylation-specific PCR was employed to detect the expressions of RASSF2 in esophageal carcinoma tissues,adjacent tissues from 27 patients after surgery and Barrett's esophagus tissues from 18 patients after gastroscopic biopsy.Results The rate of RASSF2 methylation was much higher in esophageal carcinoma (66.7 ％,18/27) than that in adjacent tissues (22.2 ％,6/27) (P ＜ 0.05),and was more frequently than that in Barrett's esophagus (33.3 ％,6/18) (P ＜ 0.05).However,no significant difference of methylation status was observed between Barrett's esophagus and adjacent tissue (P ＞ 0.05).Conclusion The hypermethylation of RASSF2 may be the molecular mechanism in the development of esophageal carcinoma,and more samples should be used for further experiment in Barrett' s esophagus.