Abstract: Phosphatase of regenerating liver-3 （PRL-3） is a metastasis-associated phosphatase which was highly expressed in various types of cancers， such as acute myeloid leukemia， colorectal cancer， breast carcinoma， non-small cell lung cancer and so on. It can promote cell proliferation， migration and invasion. In recent years， with the development of research methods，the research on mechanism of PRL-3 in tumor is increasing. These studies found that the pathways of tumorigenesis and metastatic was not all the same in deferent tumors. So it has the wide prospect of the clinical application in targeted therapy. This review is about the mechanism of action of PRL-3 in tumors.