Objective To investigate whether the single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) in DNA repair gene XRCC1(X-ray repair cross-complementing 1) were associated with the survival of cisplatin based combination concurrent chemoradiotherapy in esophagus cancer. Methods Overall 286 esophagus cancer patients receiving cisplatinum based chemotherapy were investigated. 5' nuclease allelic discrimination assay (TaqMan) and real-time PCR were taken to assess XRCC1 genotypes. Efficacies and adverse-effects were analyzed individually according to their genotype. Results Short-time effects showed the RR rate in patients with Arg/Arg and Arg/GIn genotypes(A group) was 93.56 %, significantly higher than 69.81% (P<0.05) in patients with GIn/GIn genotype (B group). The 1-year and 3-year survival rates were 82.8 %, 41.2 % in A group, significantly (P<0.05) different from 58.5 %, 26.4 % in B group, respectively. No statistically differences were found on adverse effects. Conclusion Significant relationships are found between single nucleotide polymorphisms in XRCC1 and outcome in esophagus cancer receiving cisplatin based concurrent chemoradiotherapy.