〔Abstract〕 Objective To identify the long non-coding RNAs(lncRNAs) differentially expressed in metastatic and non-metastatic nasopharyngeal carcinoma(NPC) patetients and to predict their underlying biological functions. Methods High-throughput sequencing technique was used to detect the expression of lncRNAs in serum of 2 patients with non-metastatic NPC and 3 patients with metastatic NPC. The potential biological mechanism of lncRNAs was evaluated and predicted by Gene Ontology(GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes(KEGG) pathway analysis. Results Compared with the sera of patients with non-metastatic NPC, there were 2 high expression and 12 low expression lncRNAs in the metastasis group(P<0.05). Among them, the difference multiple of lncRNA ENST00000610778 with low expression in the metastasis group was larger. The genes encoding proteins around these lncRNAs were enriched in biological processes such as translation, ribosomal large subunit assembly, viral transcription and ribosomal pathway. Conclusion There are many differentially expressed lncRNAs in the sera of patients with metastatic and non-metastatic NPC, which may have specific biological functions and become new targets for the diagnosis and treatment of metastatic NPC.