Objective To explore protein expression and significance of MAGE genes in colorectal carcinoma(CRC)tissues.Methods The expression of MAGE genes were studied by using tissue chip and immunochemistry methods in primary CRC tissue and paired adjacent tissue samples in 97 cases.Data were analyzed with x2-test by SPSS 16.0 software.Results The protein expression of MAGE-A3,MAGE-A4 and MAGE-A10 genes were 57％(56/97),63％(61/97)and 28％(27/97)respectively in 97 cases of primary adenocarcinoma.The protein expression frequency of MAGE-A3 in poor colorectal adenocarcinomas was significantly higher than in well-and moderately disfferentiated adenocarcinomas(x2 =9.133,P =0.010).MAGE-A10 in poor colorectal primary adenocarcinomas was significantly higher than in well and moderately adenocarcinomas(x2 =15.280,P =0.000); MAGE-A10 protein expression was significantly higher in stage TNM Ⅲ + Ⅳ than in stage TNM Ⅰ + Ⅱ(x2 =4.227,P=0.040); MAGE-A10 gene expression was higher in metastasis lymphoid node than in no metastasis lymphoid node(x2 =5.557,P =0.018),and the expression level was higher in primary lesion with the increasing of the numbers of lymphoid node metastasis(x2 =7.296,P =0.026).Conclusions The protein expression of MAGE genes is associated with the tumor differentiation,TNM stage and lymphoid node metastasis.MAGE-A3 and MAGE-A10 genes are the possible prognosis marker and potential target of immunotherapy of CRC.