Abstract: Objective To investigate the value of serum ADAM8 level in diagnosis and prognosis of lung cancer. Methods ELISA was used to detect the level of serum ADAM8 in 98 lung carcinoma patients,38 benign lung disease patients and 24 normal persons. Results The level of serum ADAM8 in group of lung cancer was higher than that in groups with benign pulmonary disease and normal persons (P<0.05）, but no significant difference between benign pulmonary disease and normal persons (P>0.05). The level of serum ADAM8 statistically correlated with distant metastasis and TNM staging(P<0.05）,but didn't correlate with pathological types（P>0.05）in lung cancer group. The level of serum ADAM8 in the lung cancer patients at the stage Ⅰ and Ⅱ was significantly higher than that in non-tumor patients(P<0.05).The diagnostic sensitivity(%) and specificity(%) of ADAM8 for lung cancer was 86% and 75%, respectively and area under the ROC curve of ADAM8 was 0.872. Conclusion The level of serum ADAM8 may be used as a sign in diagnosis of lung cancer.The change of serum ADAM8 level will be used as a evaluating inductor in observation of metastasis and prognosis in lung cancer.