Esophageal carcinoma is one of the most prevalent malignancies in China. Surgical treatment remains to be important in the treatment for esophageal carcinoma. However, controversies exist in the surgical treatment for esophageal carcinoma including selection of appropriate surgical approach, extent of lymph node dissection, and optimization of minimally invasive esophagectomy processes and make it comparable to the open esophagectomy. All above disputed issues will be resolved through multi-center randomized controlled studies using clinical research network platform in the future. The clinical evidences produced by these studies will be used for revision of guidelines for esophageal carcinoma.