To investigate the effect of intranasal glucocorticoids treatment on the expression of c-fos and c-myc nasal polyps.Immunohistochemistry method was used to determine c-fos and c-myc expression in nasal polyps from patients with topical steroids treatment for 10-12 weeks and untreated patients.The rate of c-fos expressing cases was 15% and the rate of c-myc expressing cases was 20% in nasal polyps from topical steroid treated patients, but in untreated patients, the rate of c-fos expressing cases was 80% and the rate of c-myc expressing cases was 85%. There were significant differences between two groups (P < 0.01). The c-fos and c-myc expression was remarkably downregulated in nasal polyps from topical steroid treated patients compared to untreated patients.The results show that glucocorticoids may induce cell apoptosis in nasal polyps by depressing the c-fos and c-myc expression.