Abstract: The objective was to explore the feasibility of lugols iodine staining to detect early esophageal cancer through endoscopy. Lugols iodine was sprayed on esophageal mucosa under endoscopy in 90 patient with suspected malignancy and biopsy of unstained position by iodine was performed. There were 72 irregularly unstained fragment including early esophageal cancer (n=2), dysplasia (n=27) and chronic esophagitis ( n=43). Lugols iodine staining under endoscopy can help the diagnosis of early esophageal cancer.

Key words: endoscopy, iodine staining, early esophageal cancer