Objectives To explore the expression of macrophage inflammatory protein-1beta (MIP-1β) in patients with none-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) of different pathological types and its association with cancer clinical stages and metastasis of lymph nodes.Methods MIP-1β mRNA from fresh lung tissue of 38 NSCLC patients was amplified by RT-PCR and half-quantified.Immunohistochemical technique was performed to find out the expression of MIP-1β in paraffin-embedded lung tissue from 66 patients with NSCLC.The area and degree of stain were evaluated to determine the positive rate，which was compared between with or without metastasis of lymph nodes，different pathological types and TNM clinical stages.Results MIP-1β protein was found in cytoplasm of malignant cells of squama cell cancer and adenocarcinoma without significant difference between them，while not found in bronchus-alveolus cell cancer.The MIP-1β mRNA expression in squama cell cancer and adenocarcinoma were significant higher than which in bronchus-alveolus cell cancer without significant difference between each other.The positive rates of MIP-1β in lung cancer of Ⅰ，Ⅱ and Ⅲ stages were 74.2%，29.4% and 85.7% respectively，which of Ⅰ and Ⅲ stages cancer were significant higher than Ⅱ stage without significant difference between each other.The positive rates of MIP-1β in lung cancer with or without metastasis of lymph nodes were 45.8% and 76.3% respectively with significant difference between them.Conclusion MIP-1β is expressed in lung cancer cells and relates to the pathological type，TNM stage and the metastasis of lymph nodes.