〔Abstract〕 Objective To analyze the expression of tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase-4(TIMP-4) and matrix metalloproteinase-2(MMP-2) in gastric cancer(GC) and adjacent tissues, and to explore their clinical significance in GC.Methods The expression levels of TIMP-4 protein and MMP-2 protein in 75 cases of gastric adenocarcino-ma tissues and 42 adjacent tissues were analyzed by immunohistochemical method, and the correlation betweenTIMP-4 protein and MMP-2 protein was analyzed by Pearson correlation analysis. Kaplan-meier survival analysis of GC in TCGA was performed to analyze the correlation between high TIMP-4 and MMP-2 expression in GC and overall survival. Results Among 75 GC tissues,65 cases were positive for TIMP-4 protein( 86. 67%),68 cases were positive for MMP-2 protein( 90. 67%),and 22 cases were positive for TIMP-4 in non-tumor tissues adjacent to cancer( 52. 38%),23 cases of MMP-2 positive in non-tumor tissues adjacent to cancer( 54. 76%). The differences were statistically significant compared with adjacent tissues( P<0. 01). The expression of MMP-2 protein was statistically related to lymph node metastasis( P<0. 001) and cancer stage( P<0. 05),but it was not statistically related to gender,age,tumor size or degree of differentiation. There was no statistical correlation between TIMP-4 protein expression,gender,age,tumor size,lymph node metastasis,tumor differentiation or cancer stage( P>0. 05). Pearson correlation analysis found a positive correlation between MMP-2 protein and TIMP-4 protein expression( r = 0. 351,P<0. 001). Kaplan-meier survival analysis showed that GC patients with high expression of TIMP-4 and MMP-2 had a poor prognosis. Conclusion MMP-2 protein and TIMP-4 protein are highly expressed in GC tissues,and the high expression suggest poor prognosis of GC patients,thus which may jointly participate in the occurrence and development of GC andwere expected to become a potential biological marker for predicting metastasis of GC.