Palliative care modalities in esophageal cancer management focus on enhancing the quality of life for patients. One such modality is esophageal stenting, primarily used to relieve malignant dysphagia and esophageal leakage. It significantly improves patients’ nutritional intake, but also carries a risk of complications, including retrosternal pain, bleeding, stent migration and aspiration pneumonia. These complications can potentially impact the overall survival of patients; therefore, it is necessary to evaluate patients’ overall health before proceeding with esophageal stenting. Alternative interventions such as total parenteral nutrition and gastrostomy tubes should be explored in cases where complications from stenting outweigh benefits. This narrative review evaluates the therapeutic and survival outcomes associated with esophageal stenting, examines patient responses to the intervention and compares the clinical effectiveness of stenting with that of other palliative care modalities.