Oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma is one of the deadliest malignancies worldwide. Contactin-1, a neural adhesion molecule, is implicated in tumour invasion and metastasis. The purpose of this study was to investigate the expression of CNTN-1 in normal and cancerous oesophageal tissue, and the potential relevance to clinicopathological features.Thirty normal oesophageal tissue samples and 82 primary oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma tissue samples were included in this study. The expression levels of CNTN-1, VEGF-C and HIF-1α messenger RNA were determined using reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction and quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. The expression of the CNTN-1 protein was measured using immunohistochemistry.The expression of CNTN-1 messenger RNA was significantly increased in the tumour tissue compared with the normal oesophageal tissue (P=0.001). The oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma tissue consistently showed higher CNTN-1 protein levels. The CNTN-1 expression correlated with the oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma stage (P=0.006), lymph node metastasis (P=0.018) and lymphatic invasion (P=0.035). The messenger RNA level of CNTN-1 correlated significantly with those of VEGF-C and HIF-1α.The expression of CNTN-1 is upregulated in the oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma tissue and related to stage, lymph node metastasis and lymphatic invasion. Thus, CNTN-1 may be involved in the progression and pathogenesis of oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma.