Abstract: Esophageal cancer has high incidence and mortality rates in our country. The number of mortality is greater than that of incidence, thus indicating that many problems still occur in esophageal cancer diagnosis and treatment. The present diagnosis of esophageal cancer includes gastrointestinal angiography, endoscopic biopsy, and CT, among others. As a new method, PET/CT breaks through the limitation of traditional inspection by combining the metabolic and CT images. This combination has a unique value in diagnosis, tumor staging, efficacy evaluation, prognosis, and other aspects of esophageal cancer. This article reviews the latest research.