Abstract: Objective To explore the role of a quantitative measure of the paired boxed gene 1 （PAX1） methylation in detection of cervical cancer. Methods The percentage of PAX1 methylation was detected by real-time quantitative methylation-specific polymerase chain reaction （QMSP） in normal cervical tissues （n=20）， cervical intraepithelial neoplasiaⅠ（CINⅠ） tissues （n=15）， CINⅡtissues （n=16）， CINⅢ tissues （n=19） and cervical cancer tissues （n=22）. The methylation status of PAX1 gene in cervical cancer tissues was tested by methylation-specific polymerase chain reaction （MS-PCR）.The efficacy of PAX1 in diagnosis of cervical cancer was compared with that of the hybrid capture 2-human papilloma virus-DNA （HC2-HPV-DNA） test by ROC curve. Results The percentage of methylated reference （PMR） in cervical cancer was （75.27±30.61）％， significantly higher than （12.90±10.80）％ in CINⅢ and other milder lesions or normal tissues （P＜0.001）. The area under the ROC curve （AUC）， sensitivity and specificity of PAX1 methylation tested by QMSP was 0.98， 100.0％ and 84.3％， better than 0.82， 100.0％ and 52.5％ of HC2-HPV-DNA test （P＜0.001）. The MS-PCR test showed that the methylation rate of PAX1 in cervical cancer， metastatic cancer tissue，adjacent normal tissue and remote normal tissue was 95.0％ （19／20）， 100.0％ （4／4）， 70.0％ （14／20） and 35.0％ （7／20） with significance（P＜0.001）. Conclusion Quantitative measurement of PAX1 hypermethylation in cervical scrapings is highly sensitive and more specific than HC2-HPV-DNA test in detection of cervical cancer. Quantitative measurement of PAX1 methylation may have a potential value for diagnosis of cervical cancer in clinic.