objective:to investigate the associations between potentially functional polymorphisms of interleukin 23 receptor(il23r) and esophageal cancer risk. methods:a case-control study with 1 045 esophageal cancer cases and 1 047 cancer-free controls frequency matched by age and gender was conducted,and the genotypes were determined by the taqman assay. logistic regression analysis was used to evaluate the odd ratios(ors)and 95% confidence intervals(cis)of rs1884444 t>g and rs6682925 t>c with susceptibility of esophageal cancer. results:the il23r rs1884444 tg/gg variant genotypes were associated with a significantly increased risk of esophageal cancer(adjusted or=1.20,95%ci=1.01~1.43),compared with tt genotype,il23r rs6682925 tc/cc genotypes were associated with a marginal increased risk of esophageal cancer(adjusted or=1.17,95%ci=0.98~1.40) compared with tt genotype,and the risk effects were more predominant in young subjects(age≤60 years) and no-drinkers for both two snps. conclusion:our findings indicated that il23r rs1884444 and rs6682925 may contribute to the risk of esophageal cancer in chinese.