CT findings in 28 patients with histologically proven esophageal carcinoma were reviewed. In 12 of thesepatients, CT findings were correlated with operative findings. CT accurately diagnosed 27 of 28 patients(96%), and failed to diagnose one case of esophageal carcionoma in situ. CT findings of the 28 patients included esophageal wall thickening, proximal dilatation, invasion to adjacent organ and distant metastasis. Common organs of invasion were periesophageal fat, tracheobronchial trees, left atricum, in descending order. The incidence of adjacentorgan invasion has a tendency to increase depending on the length of esophageal carcinoma. In the 12 patients who underwent operation, CT accurately diagnosed periesophageal fat invasion in 83%(10/12), and lymph node metastasisin 75%(9/12). Consequently CT shows good diagnostic accuracy of esophageal cancer, but has some limitations inpredicting periesophageal spread and lymph node metastasis in staging of esophageal carcinoma.