Abstract： Objective To explore the clinical significance of serum HGF level changes in gastric cancer pa-tients. Methods 60 cases of patients who operatied and clinicopathological confirmed gastric cancer, were detected serum HGF level by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay(ELISA) .40 cases were administered radical gastrectomy,20 cases of patients who had distant metastasis and loss operative chance were detected 7 days and 3 months preopera-tive,postoperative serum HGF level respectively. At the same time 40 cases of chronic gastritis patients and 40 cases of healthy examination people were selected as control group. Results Serum HGF level in patients with gastric canc-er was significantly higher than that of chronic gastritis and normal controls(P <0. 01). The serum HGF level of pa-tients with tumor vascular invasion significantly increased(P <0. 05). The patients with lymph node metastasis,serum HGF level was significantly higher than that patients with no lymph node metastasis(P <0. 05). The serum HGF level of patients with liver metastasis was significantly higher than that patients with no liver metastasis(P <0. 05). The se-rum HGF level of gastric cancer patients whose maximum diameter of the tumor ≥3cm were significantly higher than that maximum diameter of the tumor <3cm(P<0. 05). According to TNM staging of gastric cancer,the serum HGF level of Ⅰ phase and Ⅱ phase patients were significantly lower than that Ⅲ phase and Ⅳ phase patients(P <0.05).The serum HGF level of gastric cancer patients had no significant correlation with sex ,age and histological type(P <0.05). The serum HGF level of 40 cases of patients who were 1 week after surgery were significantly decreased,the patients who were 3 months after surgery were more obvious(P <0. 05 and P <0. 001). Conclusion HGF may play an important role in gastric cancer occurrence and development. The detection of serum HGF level can become an im-portant index for monitoring the degree of gastric cancer and prognosis of patients.