Objective To investigate the clinical predictive significance of ribonucleotide reductase Ml (RRM1) and breast cancer susceptibility gene l(BRCA1) gene expression in peripheral blood of Chinese patients with non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) treated with gemcitabine and platinum. Method 40 Chinese patients with advanced NSCLC was recruited and received gemcitabine 1200 mg/ m2 on days 1 and 8 combined with carboplatin (AUC5; day 1). The peripheral blood of them was collected for the assay of the RRM1 and BRCA1 expression level by quantitative RT-PCR. Relationships between the gene expression and the overall survival time of patients with NSCLC were analyzed by using Kaplan-Meier survival curve and the log-rank test.Results The expression levels of RRM1 and BRCA1 had no significant correlation (p>0.05). But the result illuminated a strong correlation between the expression of RRM1 and the response to chemotherapy (p = 0.003). Moreover, the survival time of patients with low RRM1 expression levels in peripheral blood was significantly longer than that of patients with high RRM1 expression levels (16.95 months vs 12.76 months, Log-rank 3.989, p = 0.046). However, no significant association between BRCA1 expression levels and survival was found (16.80 months versus 13.77 months, log-rank 0.830, P = 0.362).Conclusion The patients with low RRM1 expression levels in peripheral blood had higher response to chemotherapy and longer survival time. The results of this study may be benefit for selecting patients of advanced non-small cell lung cancer with low RRM1 expression levels to accept gemcitabine combined with platinum. RRM1 mRNA expression in peripheral blood could be used to predict the prognosis of NSCLC with combined treatment of gemcitabine and platinum.