The correlation of 5-year survival rate with various clinical and histopathological factors was studied using univariate and multiple analyses of 128 patients who had undergone resection for esophageal carcinoma between 1965 and 1978 in the Department of Surgery, Kyushu University Hospital. The depth of penetration, lymph node metastasis, lymphatic or vascular invasion, and INF had a significant correlation with 5-year survival in the univariate analysis; however, only depth of penetration and lymph node metastasis were prognostic factors with a significant difference, in the multivariate analysis. In 55 patients in whom the cell nuclear DNA content had been determined, the DNA pattern was the greatest prognostic factor (p less than 0.01), in multivariate analysis. We propose that the DNA distribution in the malignant cells should be examined as a most pertinent prognostic factor.