The activation of NF-κB signaling pathway plays a critical role in carcinogenesis.The role of NF-κB pathway in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) remains ill-defined.The objective was to detect whether p65siRNA and curcumin could promote the ESCC cells apoptosis and increase the ESCC cells sensitivity to chemotherapeutic drugs by inhibiting NF-κB signaling pathway,and then compared these two methods.In the present study,the status of NF-κB pathway,in the two ESCC cell lines Ecal09 and EC9706,was analyzed and then the ability of p65 siRNA and curcumin alone or in combination with 5-FU to modulate this pathway in vitro and in vivo was investigated.