Background: The current study aims to investigate the expression and diagnostic value of ADAM12 in patients with cervical cancer before general anesthesia. Methods: Seventy-eight cases of cervical cancer patients were included in the present study. RT-PCR and western blot were used to detect the expression of ADAM12 in cervical cancer tissues and adjacent tissues. Meanwhile, the expression of secretory ADAM12 in serum of cervical cancer patients and healthy people was detected by ELISA. The relationship between ADAM12 expression and prognosis of cervical cancer patients was analyzed. ROC analysis was carried out to explore the diagnostic value of ADAM12. Results: Our data showed that the expression of ADAM12 mRNA and protein in cervical cancer tissues was significantly up-regulated compared with the adjacent tissues. ELISA assay showed that the content of ADAM12 in serum of cervical cancer patients was significantly higher than that of healthy people. Furthermore, ADAM12 expression was closely related to tumor invasion, TNM stage, lymph node metastasis and tumor differentiation. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis showed that the overall survival rate of patients with high ADAM12 was significantly lower than that of patients with low ADAM12 expression. The AUC of ADAM12, CEA, CA125, and SCC for cervical cancer was 0.893, 0.510, 0.769 and 0.550, respectively, while the highest value of AUC was 0.946 by the combination of the four indexes. Conclusions: In summary, increased expression of ADAM12 in cervical cancer patients can be used as an independent prognostic marker.