Objective To investigate the prognostic factors of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma(ESCC) by multivariate analysis of clinicopathologic features of ESCC between long-term and short-term survivals after esophagectomy. Methods The clinicopathologic features of randomly selected 126 cases with ESCC were analyzed with binary logistic regression, 48 cases of which was divided into long-term survival group(≥5 years) and 78 cases into short-term survival group(≤1 year) according to the follow-up. Results Under univariate analysis, the differences between two groups on tumor pathologic grading, metastasis to lymph node, depth of tumor invasion and length of tumor were significant (Plt;0.01), however, that on age, gender, location of tumor and status of residues were not (Pgt;0. 05). Multivariate analysis showed that tumor pathologic grading, metastasis to lymph node, depth of tumor invasion and length of tumor correlated with the prognosis of ESCC (Plt;0. 05). Their risk coefficient were 2. 943, 2. 641, 2. 126 and 1. 728, respectively. Age, gender, location of tumor and status of residues did not correlated with the prognosis of ESCC (Pgt;0. 05). Correlation analysis indicated that depth of tumor invasion was positively related to the length of tumor (r=0. 488, Plt;0. 001), metastasis to lymph node was positively related with depth of tumor invasion and tumor pathologic grading (r=0. 216, P=0. 014; r=0. 238, P=0. 007). Conclusions The main prognostic factors of ESCC are tumor pathologic grading, metastasis to lymph nodes, depth of tumor invasion and length of tumor,Tumor pathologic grading is high risk factor for prognosis of ESCC,while length of tumor is low risk factor. Age and gender of patients, location of tumor and status of esophageal residues are non-risk factors.