Objective:To investigate the efficacy of hyperbaric oxygen (HBO) therapy in the treatment of esophageal cancer and its impact on patients′ quality of life.Methods:A total of 98 patients with esophageal cancer admitted to the PLA Navy Anqing Hospital from February 2014 to February 2016 were enrolled and randomly divided into control group and observation group, with 49 patients in each group. The control group was treated with chemotherapy. The observation group was treated with HBO on the basis of the treatment of control group. The short-term efficacy and adverse reactions of the two groups were compared. The quality of life was assessed by the Quality of Life Questionnaire-Core 30 (QLQ-C30) of cancer patients. After 3 years of follow-up, the long-term efficacies of the two groups were compared.Results:The near-term total effective rate of the observation group (44.9%) was obviously higher than that of the control group (36.7%), with statistically significant difference ( χ2=4.037, P<0.05). After treatment, the total scores of physical function and quality of life of the patients in the observation group were significantly higher than those in the control group, with statistically significant difference ( P<0.05). After 4 courses of treatment, the incidence of adverse reaction of the observation group was significantly lower than that of the control group ( P<0.05). During the 3-year-long follow-up, the 1-year survival rate of the observation group was significantly higher than that of the control group (79.6% vs. 59.2%, χ2=5.027, P<0.05). The 2-year and 3-year survival rates of the observation group were higher than those of the control group, but there was no significant difference ( P>0.05). Conclusion:HBO-assisted chemotherapy has a good clinical effect on the patients with esophageal cancer and can improve the quality of life, which is of perceivable clinical significance for the treatment of esophageal cancer.