Abstract: Objective: To determine the expression levels of heparanase mRNA and VEGF-D in gastric cancer and to describe a correlation between these expression levels and the clinicopathologic parameters, angiogenesis and lymphangiogenesis. Methods: Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was used to detect heparanase mRNA levels and immunohistochemical staining was used to detect VEGF-D in the cancerous and paraneoplastic tissues of 48 cases with gastric carcinoma. Results: The expression of heparanase was significantly higher in gastric cancer tissues than in paraneoplastic tissues (P<0.05). The positive rate of heparanase expression in well- and moderately differentiated cancer (stage Ⅰ to Ⅱ) was significantly lower than that in poorly differentiated cancer (stage Ⅲ to Ⅳ (<0.05)). In gastric cancer with lymph node metastasis, heparanase expression was significantly higher than that in gastric cancer without lymph metastasis (P<0.05). The expression of VEGF-D was also significantly higher in gastric cancer tissues than in cancer-adjacent tissues (P<0.05). The positive rate ofVEGF-Dexpression was correlated with lymph-node metastasis (P<0.05).The expression ofVEGF-D in the group with positive expression of heparanase was higher than that in the group with negative expression of heparanase (P<0.05). Conclusion: Heparanase can facilitate the infiltration, lymph-node metastasis and microvessel formation of gastric cancer and may also be a useful marker for predicting the prognosis of patients with gastric cancer.