Objective: To investigate the expression of IL-4 and IL-13 in papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) and its relationship with clinicopathological features and postoperative recurrence (including metastasis). Methods: A total of 185 cases of pathologically confirmed papillary thyroid carcinoma and adjacent tissues were collected. Another 20 cases of normal thyroid tissue as a control group. Immunohistochemistry was used to detect the expression of IL-4 and IL-13 in the tissues. Results: The positive rate of IL-4 protein in cancer tissues was 95.68%, which was significantly higher than that in adjacent tissues 37.84% and normal tissues 5.00% (P<0.05). The positive rate of IL-13 protein in cancer tissues was 90.81%, which was significantly higher than that in adjacent tissues 41.08% and normal tissues 0.00% (P<0.05). The expression of IL-4 and IL-13 had significant relationship with clinical features such as tumor size, depth of invasion, differentiation and TNM staging (P<0.05). The recurrence rate of high IL-4 expression group was significantly higher than that of low IL-4 expression group (χ2=5.491, P=0.019). The recurrence rate of IL-13 high expression group was significantly higher than that of IL-13 low expression group, the difference was statistically significant (χ2=4.345, P=0.037). COX regression analysis showed that high expression of IL-4 and high expression of IL-13 were independent risk factors for postoperative recurrence in patients with PCT (P<0.05). Conclusion: IL-4 and IL-13 in PTC tumor tissue are upregulated, and are related to tumor size, depth of invasion, differentiation and TNM staging, and the high expression of IL-4 and IL-13 in tumor tissue is an independent risk factor for postoperative recurrence (including metastasis).