Abstract： Objective To study the plasma and intratumoral levels of ghrelin, leptin and their relationship and clinical significance in patients with pancreatic endocrine tumor.Methods Preoperative plasma levels of ghrelin and leptin were detected by ELISA in 11 patients with pancreatic endocrine tumors and 28 normal controls.Expressions of ghrelin and its receptor GHS-R 1A were tested in 11 tumors and 27 paired control tissues by immunohistochemistry staining, and they were correlated with the clinicopathological characteristics.Results The plasma levels of ghrelin was ( 16.0 ± 5.0) pg/ml, which was significantly lower than that in normal controls [ (21.0 ± 2.0) pg/ml, P = 0.047 ].The plasma levels of leptin was (0.34 ±0.03 ) ng/ml, which was not significantly different with that in normal controls [ 0.38 ± 0.04) ng/ml ].There was positive association between plasma levels of leptin and ghrelin (P =0.015 ), but was not associated with clinicopathological parameters.The plasma levels of leptin in control group was positively associated with BMI (P = 0.002), but they were not associated in patients with tumor.The expression rate of ghrelin in tumor tissue was significantly lower than that in control group (64% vs 100%, P = 0.004 ).But the expression rate of GHS-R I A was not significantly different between the two groups.The expression of ghrelin and GHS-R1A in tumor was not significantly associated with clinicopathological parameters.Conclusions The ghrelin and its receptor GHS-R 1A were extensively expressed in pancreatic endocrine tumors, and the serum levels of ghrelin and leptin was changed.