The eighth edition of the TNM staging manual for esophageal and esophagogastric junction cancer developed by the American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) was implemented on January 1, 2017. The TNM staging system has always played a vital role in the diagnosis, treatment and prognostic evaluation of esophagus and esophagogastric junction cancer. With the continuous improvement of the level of clinical diagnosis and treatment, many factors affecting the prognosis of esophagus and esophagogastric junction cancer have been continuously discovered. Therefore, the TNM staging system for esophageal and esophagogastric junction cancer has been constantly revising and improving. The eighth edition of the TNM staging standard for esophageal and esophagogastric junction cancer released by AJCC has the following main changes compared with the previous version, ① the T, N, M and G staging has been improved; ② the regional lymph node has been redefined; ③ the definition of the location of esophageal cancer has been clarified; and ④ the clinical staging and pathological staging after neoadjuvant treatment were added. This article will briefly describe the corresponding refinement and improvement content to help more accurate tumor staging in clinical practice, which can be helpful for the implementation of precision medicine.