Basaloid squamous carcinoma(BSC)is a rare variant of esophageal cancer.There are very few reports of“early”BSC.Here we report a case of early BSC with unusual findings by narrowband imaging magnified endoscopy(NBI-ME).A 70-year-old man with a middle thoracic esophageal tumor was referred to our hospital.White-light endoscopy revealed a reddish depressed lesion 5 mm in diameter having a subepithelial tumor-like prominence with a gentle rising slope.NBI-ME revealed irregular loop-shaped microvessels coexistent with thick irregularly branched non-looped vessels.Iodine staining revealed a pale brown lesion.We performed endoscopic submucosal dissection for diagnostic treatment.Histologic examination showed the proliferation of basal cell-like hyperchromatic tumor cells in the lamina propria and with slight invasion into the submucosa at a depth of 320μm.The tumor cells formed solid nests and microcystic structures,containing an Alcian blue-positive mucoid matrix.The surface was covered with squamous epithelium without cellular atypia.Thin vessels were observed in the intra-epithelial papilla and thick vessels were observed around the solid nests beneath the epithelium.Based on these findings together,we diagnosed the lesion as BSC.In this case,the NBI-ME findings differed from those of typical squamous cell carcinoma in that both non-invasive cancer-like irregular loop-shaped microvessels coexisted with massively invasive cancerlike thick non-looped vessels.We speculate that the looped and non-looped vessels observed by NBI-ME histologically corresponded to thin vessels in the intraepithelial papilla and thick vessels around the tumor nests,respectively.These NBI-ME findings might be a feature of early esophageal BSC. Basaloid squamous carcinoma (BSC) is a rare variant of esophageal cancer. Here are very few reports of “early ” BSC. Here we report a case of early BSC with unusual findings by narrow band imaging magnified endoscopy (NBI-ME) 70-year-old man with a middle thoracic esophageal tumor was referred to our hospital. White-light endoscopy revealed a red discoloration lesion 5 mm in diameter having a subepithelial tumor-like prominence with a gentle rising slope. NBI-ME revealed irregular loop -shaped microvessels coexistent with thick irregularly branched non-looped vessels. Iodine staining revealed a pale brown lesion. We performed endoscopic submucosal dissection for diagnostic treatment. Histologic examination showed the proliferation of basal cell-like hyperchromatic tumor cells in the lamina propria with slight invasion into the submucosa at a depth of 320 μm. The tumor cells formed solid nests and microcystic structures, containing an Alcian blue-positive mucoid matrix. The surface was covered w ith squamous epithelium without cellular atypia.Thin vessels were observed in the intra-epithelial papilla and thick vessels were observed around the solid nests beneath the epithelium.Based on these findings together, we diagnosed the lesion as BSC.In this case, the NBI- ME findings differed from those of typical squamous cell carcinoma in that both non-invasive cancer-like irregular loop-shaped microvessels coexisted with massively invasive cancer like thick non-looped vessels.We speculate that the looped and non-looped vessels observed by NBI-ME histologically corresponded to thin vessels in the intraepithelial papilla and thick vessels around the tumor nests, respectively. These NBI-ME findings might be a feature of early esophageal BSC.