Objective To investigate the value of serum proteomic profiling in cervical cancer detected pre-surgery and post-surgery. Methods Magnetic bead and matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization-time of flight-mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF-MS) were used to detect the serum samples from 54 cases with cervical cancer before and after surgery and 53 serum samples from healthy women. The results of spectra were analyzed by Biomarker Wizard software. Results Significant variation of proteomic profiling between pre-surgery and post-surgery were analyzed. There were 22 proteins with different mass/charge (M/Z) values significantly different (P<0.01) at the M/Z value range from 1500 to 50 000, among of which relative content of proteins with M/Z 3981, 4290, and 28 066 in pre-surgery cervical cancer patients were higher than those in health women [(1.51±1.78)% vs (0.83±0.38)%, (2.70±2.19)% vs (1.72±0.91)%, (1.99±1.70)% vs (0.92±0.95)%; P<0.01], while in the post-surgery patients, relative content of these three proteins significantly decreased to (0.59±0.45)%, (1.01±0.64)%, (0.54±0.37)%, respectively. But the relative content of another three proteins with M/Z 11 487, 11 529, and 11 678 were significantly increased in post-surgery patients [(0.38±1.41)% vs (2.74±3.67)%, (0.16±0.46)% vs (2.00±1.76)%, (1.02±1.67)% vs (7.71±9.46)%; P<0.01]. Conclusion Serum proteomic profiling could screen out the proteins which had significant variation between pre-surgery and post-surgery serum, of which with M/Z 3981, 4290, and 28 066 may be related with tumor burden, while with M/Z 11 487, 11 529, and 11 678 may be response to surgical stress.