Background: Surveillance was recommended for patients after R0 esophagectomy by National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) guidelines. However, local failure was high in locally advanced patients (48-78%). The present study aimed to determine whether adjuvant treatment improved survival for stage IIb-III thoracic esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (TESCC). Methods: A retrospective review of patients diagnosed as esophageal carcinoma at the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences Cancer hospital, between January 2004 and December 2011, was performed. A database compiling 975 patents with node positive or stage III thoracic esophageal carcinoma after R0 surgery with or without postoperative radiation/chemoradiation was created. A 1:1 matched study group was generated by the Greedy method after propensity score matching (PSM) analysis. Survival curves were calculated by the Kaplan-Meier method and compared with the log-rank test. Univariate and multivariate analyses were using the Cox proportional hazards regression model. Results: 975 patients were enrolled in the study, 510 patients (52.3%) did not receive any postoperative treatment after R0 surgery and 465 patients had either postoperative chemoradiation or radiotherapy. Median follow-up was 69.2 months. After PSM, 222 well-balanced patients in each group demonstrated the same results. The 3-year, 5-year survival rates and median survival in surgery group (33.0%, 26.4%, 24.3 months) were inferior to those in postoperative treatment group (48.3%, 37.1% and 34.3 months), (P = 0.002). Compared with radiotherapy, postoperative chemoradiation did not improve DFS and OS (P = 0.692; P = 0.368). N stage and adjuvant treatment are independent prognostic factors. Conclusions: Adjuvant treatment could improve survival for patients with stage IIb-III TESCC. (C) 2019 Published by Elsevier B.V.