Objective To study the expression of thymidine phosporylase (TP) and the counts of lymph vessels in pancreatic cancer and chronic pancreatitis tissues, and to explore their clinicopathologic significances and correlation in the course of pancreatic cancer. Methods SP immunohistochemical method was used to detetct the expression of TP and the locations of lymph vessels on the routinely paraffin-embedded sections of the specimens from 51 cases pancreatic cancer and 10 cases of chronic pancreatitis. Results The positive rate of TP and the counts of lymph vessels were significantly higher (P＜0.05 and P＜0.01 respectively) in pancreatic cancer 〔54.9%, (12.5±4.3)/HP〕 than those in chronic pancreatitis 〔20.0%，(5.2±2.4)/HP〕. The positive rate of TP and the counts of lymph vessels were significantly lower （P＜0.05, P＜0.01） in well-differentiated adenocarcinoma cases and cases without metastasis compared with poor-differentiated adenocarcinoma cases and cases with metastasis. The counts of lymph vessels were significantly higher in the positive cases of TP than those in the negative ones in pancreatic cancer 〔(13.8±3.4)/HP vs (10.9±3.2)/HP〕, P＜0.01.Conclusion The expression of TP and counts of lymph vessels might be important markers reflecting the progression, biological behaviors, metastatic status and prognosis of pancreatic cancer. TP might promote lympoangiogenesis in pancreatic cancer tissues.