Abstract: OBJECTIVE To investigate the serum tumor necrosis factor-α（TNF-α）, diamine oxidase（DAO） and intestinal fatty acid binding protein（IFABP） levels in patients with postoperative infection of early gastric cancer and their correlation with the recovery of gastrointestinal function. METHODS A total of 100 patients undergoing surgery for early gastric cancer admitted to the First People's Hospital of Lianyungang City from Jan 2016 to Dec 2020 were selected and divided into 17 cases of infected group and 83 cases of uninfected group according to whether infection occurred 3 days after surgery. The general data, serum gastrin, motilin, TNF-α, DAO and IFABP levels were compared between the two groups before and 3 days after operation. Pearson was used to analyze the correlation between serum TNF-α, DAO, IFABP levels and the recovery of gastrointestinal function. Receiver operating characteristic（ROC） and area under the curve（AUC） were used to analyze the value of serum TNF-α, DAO, and IFABP for the prediction of infection. RESULTS The TNF-α, DAO, and IFABP of the infection group were significantly higher than those of the uninfected group before and 3 days after the operation（P＜0.05）; the gastrin and motilin of the infected group were significantly lower than those of the uninfected group before and 3 days after the operation（P ＜0.05）; Preoperative serum TNF-α, DAO, IFABP were negatively correlated with preoperative gastrin and motilin（P＜0.05）; The AUC of Serum TNF-α, DAO, IFABP for the prediction of infection was 0.791, 0.833, and 0.755, respectively; The AUC of combined serum TNF-α, DAO, and IFABP for the prediction of infection was 0.936（P＜0.05）. CONCLUSION The increase of serum TNF-α, DAO and IFABP in patients with postoperative infection of early gastric cancer was related to the recovery of gastrointestinal function, which was expected to be a molecular marker for predicting postoperative infection. Taking certain interventions for those at high risk of infection to prevent the occurrence of infection was of positive significance for promoting the recovery of gastrointestinal function after surgery.