To study the expression of tissue inhibitor of matrix metalloproteinase 2 (TIMP2)in the nasopharyngeal carcinoma and to evaluate the relationships between the expression of TIMP2 and biological behavior of NPC.The expression of TIMP2 was observed by immunohistochemical technique in 50 cases with nasopharyngeal carcinoma and 15 cases of Inflammation nasopharyngeal tissues.The positive rates of TIMP2 are significantly higher in NPC than in Inflammation tissues (P 0.05).The results indicate that TIMP2 may play a critical role in assisting carcinoma cell to degrade basement membrane to invade surrounding tissues and to form metastatic colonies in lymph node. Especially the unbalance in MMP2/TIMP2 has probably a prognostic value in nasopharyngeal carcinoma.