The aim of our study was to assess the reproducibility of the findings of Hambraeus et al. In their group of patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the oesophagus who underwent preoperative radiotherapy and resection, the histopathological malignancy grading score system was found to predict survival. We studied nine patients with squamous cell cancer of the mid-thoracic oesophagus, who had received radiotherapy followed by surgery and survived over 12 months. We did not confirm the prognostic value of the histopathological malignancy grading score system.