The positive rate of E-cadherin expression was lower in the cancer tissues of the patients with lymph node metastasis than in those without (P<0.05), and was lower in the poorly-differentiated cancer tissues than in the well-differentiated tissues (P<0.05), indicating that a reduction in the expression of E-cadherin may be attributed to the differentiation and lymph node metastasis of ESCC. The gene discussed is CDH1; the disease is esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.