The aim of this paper was to study the expression level and localization of DNA polymerase beta (polbeta) and the difference in those among the human esophageal cancer focus, cancer adjacent and corresponding normal esophageal tissues. These three kinds of tissues were collected from surgically resected tissues in 17 patients with esophageal carcinoma in Linzhou, China. Each of a total of 51 tissue pieces was divided into two aliquots: one aliquot for detection of polbeta expression by in situ hybridization and by immunohistochemistry; another for detection of polbeta expression by RNA dot blot and immunoblotting. In the tissue specimens detected by in situ hybridization and immunohistochemistry, the cancer focus tissue had much stronger polbeta expression signals localized in the scattered heteromorphologic cancer cells. The cancer adjacent tissue exhibited slightly stronger polbeta signals mainly localized in the epithelial proliferating cells and the corresponding normal tissue displayed weak polbeta signals basically located in the epithelial basal cells. The difference in expression level of polbeta among the three kinds of tissues detected by RNA dot blot and immunoblotting was similar to the above results. Further, the truncated POLB could be demonstrated in both cancer focus and cancer adjacent tissues, but could not be found in the corresponding normal tissue in immunoblotting. The results suggest that the overexpression of polbeta with truncated form may be a potential biomarker for early diagnosis of human esophageal carcinoma.