BACKGROUND: Glucose uptake has been found to ha increased in cancer cells, and FDG-PET imaging is used for diagnosis of cancer using This phenomenon. However, the exact mechanism of increased glucose uptake in cancer cells has not been clarified. Recent studies demonstrated the presence of glucose transporter(GLUT) mRNA expression in gastrointestinal cancer and bead and neck cancer, and suggested that GLUT may be associated with glucose uptake in cancer cells. In lung cancer cells, glucose metabolism is also known to ha in. creased. We evaluated GLUT mRNA expression in human lung cancer cell lines in order to find out the mechanism of increased glucose uptake in lung cancer. METHOD: Total RNA was isolated from 15 human lung cancer cell lines and immortalized bronchial epithelial cell line(BEAS-2B). After electrophoresis of 20microgram total RNA, Northern blot analysis was done using GLUT1 cDNA and GLUTS cDNA as probes RESULTS: 2 Thirteen of 14 human lung cancer cell lines expressed GLUT1 mRNA and 10 of 14 human lung cancer cell lines expressed GLUT3 mRNA. Eight human lung cancer cell lines expressed both GLUT mRNAs. BEAS-2B expressed GLUT1 mRNA and did not express det~table GLUT3 mRNA. CONCLUISON: The increase of glucose metabolism in lung cancer may be associated with GLUT1 and GLUT3 expression.