Esophageal carcinoma is a kind of common malignant tumor in the digestive tract. Although a lot of basic researches and clinical trials have been carried out all over the world, neither the diagnostic level nor the therapeutic effects have been obviously improved. The 5-year survival rate of esophageal cancer patient is still lower than that of other malignant tumors. Up to now, some frontier researches consider that the reason of the esophageal carcinoma being difficult to cure is related to the stem cells in it. Elimination or suppression of these stem cells may bring new hope for the treatment of esophageal cancer. This article generally introduces the specific markers, separation and indentification methods about the esophageal cancer stem cell. The targeted therapy is also mentioned.