Abstract： Objective To study the effect of sodium cantharidinate on the growth of human gastric cancer grafted onto nude mice. Methods Nude mice xenograft models of human gastric cancer were established.BGC823was injected peritoneal and the mice were weighed. The proliferating and apoptosis rates of xenografta was evaluated by TUNEL assay and immunohistochemical staining respectively. Results The xenografts were obviously inhibited with various dosage of sodium cantharidinate(P＜0.01 ), the proliferating rate of turnout cells after using sodium cantharidinate was lower than that before using sodium cantharidinate(P＜0.01 ), but apoptosis rate of tumour ceils after using sodium cantharidinate was higher than that before using sodium cantharidinate(P＜0.01 ). Conclusion Sodium cantharidinate can inhibit gastric cancer growth by inhibiting tumour cell proliferating or inducing cell apoptosls.