Objective To investigate the expression of tumor metastasis associated protein I (MTA1) in esophageal cancer tissue and its relationship with clinicopathological features and 3-year survival rate.Methods Ninety-six postoperative pathological samples of esophageal cancer and 40 samples of paracancerous tissue conforming to the inclusion standard collected by the pathological department of this hospital from January 2010 to December 2012 were selected and performed the immunohistochemical staining.Then the relationship between MTA1 protein expression with the clinicopathological features and long term survival rate was analyzed.Results The MTA1 protein expression rate in the esophageal cancer tissueswas 73.96％,which was significantly higher than 2.50％ in paracancerous tissues (P＜0.05);esophageal cancer tissues MTA1 protein expression mainly had significant correlation with TNM stage and lymph node metastasis(P＜0.05);the 3-year survival rate in the patients with esophageal cancer tissue MTA1 protein positive expression was 33.80 ％,which was significantly lower than 60.00 ％ in the patients with MTA1 protein negative expression (P＜0.05);the long-term survival rate in the patients with esophageal cancer had significant relationship with TNM staging and MTA1 protein expression (OR=1.638,OR=1.433,P＜0.05).Conclusion MTA1 protein is highly expressed in esophageal cancer tissue,and has the relationship with TNM stage and lymph node metastasis,MTA1 protein high expression is an independent risk factor for the prognosis in the patients with esophageal cancer.