AIM: Survivin, a recently identified member of the inhibitor of apoptosis protein family, is expressed during development and in various human cancers. However, its expression in normal tissues and clinical relevance in cancers are still debated. In the present study, we analyzed the expression of the survivin gene in human primary and metastatic gastric cancer cells as well as in paired epithelial cells from normal gastric mucosa by means of a novel laser capture microdissection (LCM) technique coupled with reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). METHODS: Thirty patients who had undergone gastrectomy with lymph node dissection for gastric cancer without preoperative treatments were included. Neoplastic tissue, metastatic lymph nodes, and apparently uninvolved normal tissue were collected from each patient. LCM-captured "pure" cell groups were espectively subjected to RT-PCR analysis with primers specific for the survivin gene. RESULTS: Of the paired samples from 30 gastric cancer patients studied, 24 (80%) primary gastric cancer cell groups and 7 (23%) adjacent morphologically "normal" gastric epithelial cell groups were shown to have a detectable survivin expression. There was a statistically significant difference in suvivin expression between these two groups (P<0.01). Meanwhile, 95% (19/20) of the metastatic gastric cancer cell groups from lymph nodes had a clear expression of the survivin gene. However, no significant correlation between survivin expression and clinicopathological features of gastric cancer was bserved in the present study.CONCLUSION: Survivin expression is present in the majority of gastric cancer cell groups obtained by LCM techniques. The high expression rate in metastatic lesions suggests a possible role of survivin in cancer invasiveness and metastasis. It may contribute to the detection of gastriccancer micrometastasis as a potential molecular marker. In addition, the high expression percentage renders survivin a potential target in the therapy for gastric cancer.