Esophageal cancer is a common gastrointestinal cancer with high incidence and mortality rates. Because the early symptoms are not typical, most patients are in the middle and late stages when diagnosed, and the treatment effect is disappointing. At present, our understanding of the pathogenesis of esophageal cancer is limited; it is considered to be the result of genetic-environmental interactions, but there are no definite conclusion , and there is a lack of effective treatments. Therefore, clarifying the potential pathogenesis of esophageal cancer is of great significance for research into early clinical screening, diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis. Long noncoding ( LncRNA) is a new biomarker for tumor diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis evaluation. LncRNA plays an important role in tumor cell differentiation, proliferation, apoptosis, invasion, and metastasis and mediates the occurrence and development of a variety of malignant tumors, including esophageal cancer. LncRNA plays a dual role by inhibiting and promoting cancer in esophageal cancer, but the amount of relevant literature is limited, and the mechanism of LncRNA mediation of the occurrence and development of esophageal cancer is not completely clear. This paper systematically reviews the dual-regulation mechanism of LncRNA to clarify how it affects the occurrence and development of esophageal cancer and to provide new research ideas for the clinical prevention and treatment of esophageal cancer.