Survivin variants specific real time quantitative RT-PCR was developed to analyze their expression in 53 paired cancer and para-cancerous tissues, and the expression of the wild-type survivin protein was detected by immunohistochemistry. The results showed that survivin mRNA and protein were expressed in gastric cancer and para-cancerous tissues. The survivin-2B was dominantly expressed in para-cancerous tissues, whereas the survivin-△Ex3 was more frequently detected in cancer tissues. The positive rate of survivin-2a was 100% in both cancer and para-cancerous tissues,but its relative transcript expression level was not significantly increased in cancer tissues in comparison with para-cancerous tissues. The correlation analysis revealed that the expression of survivin-2a mRNA was significantly associated with that of total survivin (rs=0.4178, P=0.0018),whereas inversely to that of survivin-/EX3 (rs=-0.4506, P=0.0007). It was suggested that survivin-2a may act as an antagonist of survivin-△EX3. The balance between antiapoptotic survivin iso-forms and nonantiapoptotic ones may play an important role in tumorigenesis and tumor progression. Promising value is hinted to analyze survivin and its variants in tumor early diagnosis and distinguishing malignant tumors from benign ones.