Objective To investigate the clinical significance of serum IL-6, IL-1β and TNF-ɑ in patients with breast cancer. Methods Serum levels of IL-6, IL-1β and TNF-ɑ were detected in 66 patients with breast cancer, 22 patients with benign breast hyperplasia and 62 health controls. The logistic regression model and the ROC curves were used to evaluate the diagnostic value of IL-6, IL-1β and TNF-ɑ for breast cancer. Results The serum levels of IL-6, IL-1β and TNF-ɑ in patients with breast cancer were significantly higher than that of other groups (P＜0.05). The diagnostic sensitivity and specificity with any single index was lower than 83%. By logistic regression analysis of “IL-6+IL-1β+TNF-ɑ”, the sensitivity of detection reached 96.7%, but the specificity was still only 71.4%. Conclusion The Serum IL-6, IL-1β and TNF-ɑ can be used as auxiliary index in the differential diagnosis of breast cancer.