As summarized in Table 1, we did not find any correlation between eIF4E expression and grade of ESCC as expected, but we found a strong association between eIF4e expression and lymphonodus involvement and TNM stage, which are tightly associated to tumor invasion and metastatic dissemination that manifested with shorter DFS and OS survival time, and multiple Cox regression analysis indicated that eIF4E was an independent unfavorable predicator for poor prognosis in ESCC. Here, EIF4E is linked to esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.