Abstract: Objective : To evaluate the expression of extracellular matrix metalloproteinase inducer (EMMPRIN) and matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP-2) in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) and their relationship with cervical lymph node metastasis. Methods : Immunohistochemical staining was used to detect the expression of EMMPRIN and MMP-2 in chronic nasopharyngitis (CN), non-metastatic NPC (NM-NPC) and lymph node metastatic NPC (LNM-NPC). Results : a) The positive rate of EMMPRIN expression in CN, NM-NPC and LNM-NPC were 13.3% (2/15), 30.0% (6/20) and 66.7% (22/33), respectively. Significant difference was found between CN and LNM-NPC (P<0.01), and NM-NPC and LNM-NPC (P=0.01), but not between CN and NM-NPC. Higher EMMPRIN expression was found in lymph node metastatic NPC than in primary NPC of the nasopharynx (81.8% versus 66.7%) as seen in paired comparisons (P=0.01). The percentage of positive EMMPRIN expression increased significantly in LNM-NPC compared to NM-NPC (P<0.05) b) The positive rate of MMP-2 expression in CN, NM-NPC and LNM-NPC was 13.3% (2/15), 35.0% (7/20) and 60.6% (20/33), respectively. Significant difference was found between CN and LNM-NPC (P<0.01). Higher MMP-2 expression was also found in LNM-NPC than in primary NPC (72.7% versus 60.6%) as seen in paired comparisons (P<0.01); c) The expression of MMP-2 significantly correlated with the expression of EMMPRIN in NPC (rs=0.466, P<0.01) . Conclusions : The overexpression of EMMPRIN plays an important role in promotion of NPC metastasis to cervical lymph nodes and can be used as a predictive indicator for NPC lymphatic metastasis. MMP-2 is also an important factor that promotes NPC metastasis.