To explore the medication rules of traditional Chinese medicine in treating esophageal cancer.Methods:With esophageal cancer as the keyword,this paper collected and organized the prescriptions in the China National Knowledge Infrastructure(CNKI) database from January 1,2010 to June 1,2020 for the treatment of esophageal cancer,established a literature research database of esophageal cancer prescriptions,and used data mining technology to analyze their medication rules.Results:In the included 207 journal documents that meet the standard,a total of 260 prescriptions and 269 traditional Chinese medicines are involved.The frequency of traditional Chinese medicines is 2 971 times.Among them,there are 59 kinds of traditional Chinese medicines with a frequency of ≥15,with 2 133 records.The core medicines for treating esophageal cancer are Rhizoma Pinelliae,Radix Astragali,Poria,Rhizoma Atractylodis Macrocephalae,Radix Angelicae Sinensis,etc.,and the main functions of traditional Chinese medicine are tonifying deficiency,clearing heat,resolving phlegm,relieving cough and asthma,promoting blood circulation and removing blood stasis,regulating Qi,promoting diuresis,and clearing damp.The medicinal properties are mainly warm,which accounts for 41.92%,and the medicinal flavors are mainly sweet,bitter,and spicy,accounting for 88.34%.Channel tropism mainly involves the spleen and stomach,accounting for 37.76% of the total frequency.Through the analysis of association rules,a total of six drug pairs with high association are obtained,and four categories can be extracted through cluster analysis.Conclusion:Most of the medicines used in the prescriptions for the treatment of esophageal cancer focus on tonifying deficiency,resolving phlegm,promoting blood circulation,and detoxification.