【Abstract】 Objective To investigate the relationship between the expression of miR-451a in nasopharyngeal carcinoma and its pathological characteristics and prognosis. Methods 95 patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma confirmed by pathological biopsy from March 2006 to July 2012 were selected as experimental subjects. The expression of miR-451A in nasopharyngeal carcinoma tissues and adjacent normal tissues was detected by real-time fluorescent quantitative RT-PCR. The prognosis of the above 95 patients were followed up in detail. The relationship between the expression of miR 451A and the degree of invasion, distant metastasis and 5-year survival rate of nasopharyngeal carcinoma was observed and analyzed.Results The expression level of mir451a in nasopharyngeal carcinoma tissues was significantly increased compared with normal tissues adjacent to carcinoma (P＜0.05). The expression level of mir451a in nasopharyngeal carcinoma tissues increased significantly with the deepening of the infiltration degree of the carcinoma tissues (P＜0.05). The expression level of mir451a in patients with distant metastasis was significantly higher than those without metastasis (P＜0.05). The 5year survival rate of nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients with high expression of mir451a was significantly lower than that of those with low expression of mir451a (P＜0.05). Conclusion The abnormal expression of mir-451a is not only involved in the occurrence of nasopharyngeal carcinoma, but also may promote the infiltration and metastasis of cancer cells, which has certain reference value for predicting the survival and prognosis of patients.