The present study was designated to analyze correlation between the presence and extent of peritumoral retraction clefting and various clinicopathologic features in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC), and to possibly establish the significance of this phenomenon in ESCC. Fifty-four consecutive patients with advanced ESCC were included in the study. The presence of peritumoral retraction clefting was classified on the basis of the proportion of tumor nests exhibiting this phenomenon. Tumors with clefts that affected up to 25% of tumor nests were classified as group I; with clefts that affected >25% to 50% of tumor nests as group II; with clefts that affected >50% to 75% of tumor nests as group III; and tumors with clefts that affected more than 75% of tumor nests were classified as group IV. Statistical analysis showed a correlation between presence and extent of peritumoral clefting and lymph node metastasis. T3 tumors and tumors with lymph node metastasis had significantly more pronounced peritumoral clefting compared with T2 tumors and tumors without lymph node metastasis. The presence of peritumoral clefting was not associated with the number of affected lymph nodes. There was no correlation between the presence and extent of peritumoral clefting with patient age and sex, and tumor location, diameter and grade. The association of peritumoral retraction clefting in ESCC with local invasiveness and lymph node metastasis indicated that peritumoral clefting could be a simple and useful morphological feature of tumor aggressiveness and may contribute to the pathological and clinical assessment of patients with ESCC.