Interleukin 7 (IL‐7) is known to promote lymphangiogenesis. To study the relationship between IL‐7 and the lymphangiogenesis in lung cancer cells xenograft tumors, we investigated how IL‐7 regulates lymphangiogenesis by Quantitative real‐time reverse transcriptase–polymerase chain reaction, Western blot, co‐immunoprecipitation, chromatin immunoprecipitation, and immunohistochemistry methods. We found that, in lung cancer cells xenograft tumors IL‐7/IL‐7 receptor (IL‐7R) increase the expression of VEGF‐D and lymphangiogenesis, induce c‐Fos and c‐Jun heterodimer formation, and enhance c‐Fos/c‐Jun DNA binding activity to regulate VEGF‐D. Taken together, our results provided evidence that IL‐7/IL‐7R induce VEGF‐D upregulation and promote lymphangiogenesis via c‐Fos/c‐Jun pathway in lung cancer. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.