Objective To detect the expression of PRL-3 relationship with tumor occurrence and metastasis in prostatic carcinoma tissues. Methods RT-PCR and Western blot were used to detect the expression of PRL-3 in prostatic carcinoma tissues and paired paratumor normal tissues from 52 PCA patients,metastatic lymph nodes from 12 cases with metastasis. Result The PRL-3 level was increased in primary PCA tissues as compared with paired paratumor normal tissues (P﹤0.05).However,the PRL-3 levels of metastatic lymph nodes in 12 cases were significantly high compared with the matched primary lesions,negative-lymph nodes and normal tissues (P﹤0.01),There was significant relation of the expression of PRL-3 with the clinicopathological features including degree of differentiation and metastatic (P﹤0.05),but no relation with age,family medical history,PSA was found (P﹥0.05) .Conclusions PRL-3 gene plays an important role in metastasis and carcinogenesis of PCA,strongly suggesting that the leve of PRL-3 can be used to indicate the potential of metastasis