Radiotherapy for esophageal tumors includes two categories: radical radiotherapy and palliative radiotherapy. Radical radiotherapy can be used for esophageal tumors in thoracic segment without tracheal invasion, esophageal perforation and bleeding signs and without supraclavicular lymph node metastasis and distant metastatic tumor foci, while palliative radiotherapy is mainly for relieving esophageal obstruction to improve the patient’s symptoms such as difficulty in eating, thus to improve the patient’s quality of life and prolong their life expectancy. The indications of radiotherapy for esophageal tumor are wide. Generally, radiotherapy is feasible for patients without esophageal fistula, distant metastasis, obvious malignancy and serious heart, lung and liver diseases. The indications for radiotherapy of esophageal tumor are: (1) no supraclavicular lymph node metastasis, no vocal cord paralysis, no distant metastasis; (2) the patient’s lesion length does not exceed 8 cm, no preperforation signs, no obvious chest and back pain; (3) there should be cytological or pathological diagnosis before radiotherapy, especially superficial esophageal tumor; (4) the patient’s general condition is above moderate, and he/she can eat semi-liquid food or general diet.