The best surgical approach for esophageal cancer should be considered according to the patient’s age, gender, tumor size and location. Specific surgical modalities include left transthoracic incision, right thoracic incision in the upper abdomen and radical esophageal cancer surgery in the left or right neck of the right thoracic incision in the upper abdomen, minimally invasive thoracolaparoscopic combined radical esophageal cancer surgery, single-port pneumatic mediastinoscopy combined with laparoscopic radical esophageal cancer surgery, intraesophageal mucosal debulking, i.e., ESD, which is mainly targeted at the patients with Stage I esophageal cancer with the lesion confined to the mucosa, and robotic radical esophageal cancer surgery.