Inclusion Criteria:

- Having signed informed consent

- Age 18 to 70 years old

- Histologically confirmed esophageal squamous carcinoma, no prior palliative
chemotherapy; recurrence from last adjuvant chemotherapy or adjuvant radiotherapy
should be longer than 6 months; no prior treatment of irinotecan as adjuvant
chemotherapy, total dose of cisplatin is less than 300mg/m2 if used in adjuvant
chemotherapy

- Unresectable recurrent or metastatic disease

- Measurable disease according to the RECIST criteria(diameter of the lesion should be
more than 10mm by spiral CT or MRI, more than 20mm by common CT, the date of image
should be less than 15 days before enrollment)

- Karnofsky performance status ≥70

- Life expectancy of ≥3 month

- No prior radiotherapy except radiotherapy at non-target lesion of the study more than
4 weeks

- ALT and AST<2.5 times ULN (≤5 times ULN in patients with liver metastases)(within 7
days before enrollment)

- Serum AKP < 2.5 times ULN (within 7 days before enrollment)

- Serum creatinine <1.0 times ULN (within 7 days before enrollment)

- Bilirubin level < 1.0 times ULN (within 7 days before enrollment)

- WBC>4,000/mm3, absolute neutrophil count ≥2000/mm3, platelet>100,000/mm3,
Hb>9g/dl(within 7 days before enrollment)

- No sever complication, such as active gastrointestinal bleeding, perforation,
jaundice, obstruction, non-cancerous fever＞38℃；

- Good compliance

Exclusion Criteria:

- previous treatment of palliative chemotherapy or recurrence less than 6 months from
time of last adjuvant chemo-/radiotherapy

- Known hypersensitivity to irinotecan

- Only with Brain or bone metastasis

- Tumor with length≥10cm, liver metastasis covers more than 50% of liver,or lung
metastasis covers more than 25% of lung

- No measurable lesions, eg. pleural fluid and ascites

- Surgery (excluding diagnostic biopsy) within 4 weeks prior to study entry

- Heart failure or other sever organ dysfunction, eg. coronary artery disease,
myocardial infarction within the last 6 months or

- Pregnancy or lactation period

- Other previous malignancy within 5 year, except non-melanoma skin cancer

- Chronic diarrhea

- Mentally abnormal or disable cognition,including CNS metastasis