Objective: This study evaluated the expression level of high mobility group box-B1 (HMGB-1) and matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) inmorder to reveal any relation with development and prognosis. Methods: NSCLC and normal tissues were selected from 30 patients at age of 30-73, and used for RT-PCR and Western blot analyses of HMGB-1. A total of 100 paraffin embedded NSCLC tissues were also isolated from patients through surgical resection, and used for detection of HMGB-1 by immunohistochemistry. In addition, 50 samples were also applied for MMP-9 detection, and 30 normal tissues were considered as controls. Correlation analysis of HMGB-1 and MMP-9 was carried out by Pearsons correlation coefficient. Results: The average expression level of HMGB-1 in NSCLC patients was significantly higher than in normal lung tissues. In addition, patients in III-IV period exhibit significantly higher positive rate of HMGB-1 when compared with I-II period cases. Furthermore, a positive correlation with HMGB-1 was found in the expression of MPP-9. Conclusion: HMGB-1 was highly expressed in NSCLC, which may become a prognostic and predictive marker for NSCLC. Besides, MPP-9 was positively correlated with HMGB-1.