Abstract: Objective To detect the expression of human stanniocalcin-1（hSTC-1） mRNA in peripheral blood of patients with thyroid papillary carcinoma，and analyze its clinical significance. Methods RT-PCR was used to detect hSTC-1 mRNA in the peripheral blood from 53 patients with thyroid papillary carcinoma and 20 patients with thyoid benign tumors. Its relationship with clinicopathological parameters were analyzed. Results The positive rate of hSTC-1 mRNA in 53 patients with thyroid papillary carcinoma was 39.62％（21／53），but there was no expression of hSTC-1 mRNA in 20 patients with benign tumors. The positive rate of hSTC-1 mRNA in patients with lymph node metastasis was 66.67％, while in patients without lymph node metastasis was 21.88％（P＜0.05）.The hSTC-1 mRNA expression was not related to sex， age and clinical stages. The semi-quantitative RT-PCR demonstrated that the expression of hSTC-1 mRNA was related to lymph node metastasis, but had no relation with sex, age and clinical stage. Conclusion The detection of hSTC-1 mRNA in peripheral blood by RT-PCR has a high value for the determination of thyroid papillary carcinoma.The established method may serve as a useful objective parameter for identifying lymph node metastasis recurrence.