Abstract: Objective The present study was designed to understand the deaths from tumors reported from Disease Surveillance System of Gansu Province and to investigate the characteristics of the deaths from tumors，SO as to provide scientific evidences for establishing tumor prevention strategy．Methods Surveillance Sites took charge of collecting，checking and reporting all death cases in their responsible areas．And then mailing the information in a form of death certification to the provincial CDC．The provincial CDC was responsible for checking them one by one，and then coding the determined prime causes of deaths according tO the International Classification of Diseases (ICD.9)，and meanwhile，completing the record and statistics of data in computer．Results Based on the 2003 report from Disease Surveillance System of Gansu Province，tumors in decreasing order of fatality rates are as follows：gastric cancer (29.56/100,000)，liver cancer (16.26/100,000)，lung cancer(12.00/100,000)，esophageal cancer(9.29/100,000)，leukemia(2.45/100,000)，uterine cervix cancer (2.07/100,000)．Moreover，the fatality rates of gastric cancer，liver cancer，lung cancer and esophageal cancer are significantly different between male and female，I.e．The fatality rates of male was obviously higher than the corresponding of female．In addition，from 1993 to 2003．The fatality rates of gastric cancer and esophageal cancer tended to decrease while that of lung cancer had a tendency to increase slowly. And that of liver cancer did not severely fluctuate．Conclusion According to the report from Disease Surveillance System of Gansu Province，deaths from tumors were caused mainly by gastric cancer，liver cancer，lung cancer and esophageal cancer，which all together accounted for 85.95％．Furthermore，male fatality rate was significantly higher than female fatality rate．Henceforth，the study on the risk factors of these four kinds of tumors should be reinforced SO that the incidence rate and the fatality rate could be reduced.