The investigation of molecular mechanisms contributing to cancer progression is the burning problem of current research. Considerable attention has been focused on the study of gene expression in cancer cells. Sphingomyelin synthase 1 gene (SGMS1) is one of the genes, the expression of which can be altered in cancer. SMS1 enzyme encoded by this gene catalyzes synthesis of sphingomyelin and diacylglycerol from phosphatidylcholine and ceramide. SMS1 may maintain the balance between cell death and survival by regulating the formation of the proaptotic mediator ceramide and anti-apoptotic mediator diacylglycerol. In addition, changes in the sphingomyelin level and sphingomyelin synthase activity have been observed in cancers of many tissues. However, the peculiarities of SGMS1 gene transcription have been insufficiently explored. In this work, the expression of transcripts of SGMS1 has been investigated by the method of real-time PCR in matched pairs of samples of human lung and esophagus cancer and adjacent tissues without pathology. A significant decrease in SMS1 transcript expression has been found in the samples of human lung cancer. At the same time, in the samples of human esophagus cancer and the adjacent tissues, the expression of SMS1 transcripts varies insignifi- cantly, i.e., it is increased in seven and decreased in five of the fifteen samples. The obtained results indicate that SGMS1 gene is expressed differently in cancers of different genesis.