Patients and Methods This study will include patients with a diagnosis of esophageal cancer who will undergo curative surgical resection in the surgical department of the National Taiwan University Hospital. All the patients will receive staging study for the tumor including computed tomography (CT) of the brain, neck, chest and abdomen, panendoscopy with endoscopic ultrasound (EUS), position emission tomography with computed tomography (optionally) and bronchoscopy for the tumor locating at the mid-to-low third of thoracic esophagus. The patient was cared according to the perioperative routine protocols of the thoracic surgical department of the National Taiwan University Hospital, including preoperative respiratory and exercise training, nutritional support and postoperative bronchoscopic toileting, and chest physical therapy. Jejunostomy feeding was started in the postoperative day 2 or 3, the oral intake was started 10 days to 2 weeks after surgery once no anastomotic leakage is demonstrated by the contrast swallowing image studies.