Objective To investigate the expression characteristics of poly （rC）-binding protein 1 （PCBP1） in gastric cancer tissues and their clinical significances by bioinformatics analysis combined with experimental verification， and to identify its relationship with STIP1 homology and U-Box containing protein 1 （STUB1）. Specifically， this study aims to verify the expression patterns of PCBP1 and STUB1 in gastric cancer and determine their relationships with clinicopathological features by immunohistochemistry to provide a theoretical framework as well as potential intervention strategies for gastric cancer. Methods Data of PCBP1 expression in gastric cancer and adjacent tissues were obtained from TIMER 2.0 online analysis website. KEGG pathway enrichment analysis was performed using gastric cancer data （STAD） in the TCGA （the Cancer Genome Atlas） database， and its potential mechanism was determined. The main regulatory factor STUB1 was found in the ferroptosis regulatory pathway. Subsequently， PCBP1 and STUB1 expressions in 33 cases of gastric cancer tissues and corresponding adjacent tissues were detected by immunohistochemistry. The collected cases were grouped according to different degrees of differentiation， age， gender， tumor size， depth of tumor invasion， TNM stage and pathological morphology. The positive expression rates of PCBP1 and STUB1 were observed. The correlation between the two proteins and the correlation between clinical and pathological features were analyzed by c2 test. Finally， the relationship between PCBP1 and STUB1 and malignancy of gastric cancer was further explored. Results Immunohistochemical results showed that the positive expression rate of PCBP1 in cancer tissues was 69.7 %， which was significantly higher than that in adjacent tissues （48.5%）. The positive expression rate of STUB1 in cancer tissues was 39.4 %， which was lower than that in adjacent tissues （54.5 %）， statistically significant difference （P < 0.05）. The positive expression rate of PCBP1 was correlated with tumor differentiation， lymph node metastasis and Lauren classification （P < 0.05）， but not with patient's age， gender， depth of invasion， clinical stage， nerve infiltration， and intravascular tumor thrombus （P > 0.05）. The positive expression rate of STUB1 was correlated with tumor differentiation， depth of invasion， lymph node metastasis and Lauren classification （P < 0.05）. The Spearman correlation coefficient between PCBP1 （cancer） and STUB1 （cancer） was -0.413， with P = 0.017 （P < 0.05）， indicating that there was a significant negative correlation between them. Conclusion PCBP1 participates in the malignant progression of gastric cancer by regulating the main regulator STUB1 in the ferroptosis pathway. Theoretically， it provides a new insight into molecular mechanism as well as a potential therapeutic strategy for treating gastric cancer.