The aim of this study was to detect the expression level of eIF4E gene in patients with non-treated, remission and non-remission/relapse acute myeloid leukemia (AML), and other non-malignant haematologic diseases so as to analyze and reveal the relationship of eIF4E gene expression with AML progression. SYBR Green I RT-PCR was used to assay the expression level of eIF4E mRNA extracted from bone marrow mononuclear cells in 30 patients with AML (6 in M2, 5 in M3, 8 in M4, 10 in M5, 1 in M6) and 20 patients with non-malignant hematologic diseases. The β2-microglubin(β2M) was used as internal reference and the formula 2(-ΔCt)×100% was applied to calculate the expression level of eIF4E gene. The results showed that the eIF4E expression level (7.098 ± 5.544)% in patients with non-treated and non-remitted/relapsed AML was significantly higher than that in patients with remission (0.964 ± 0.312)% (P < 0.01) and non-malignant hematologic diseases (0.248 ± 0.163)% (P < 0.01). There was no difference between latter two group patients, even though the expression level of eIF4E gene in patients with M4 and M5 was higher. As compared with non-malignant hematologic diseases, the expression level of eIF4E gene of patients with remission patients showed no significant difference. It is concluded that the over-expression of eIF4E gene has been found in patients with AML, and its level obviously decreases along with remission of disease, thus the eIF4E gene may be a surveillance parameter for disease progression.