Malignant tumors are one of the significant health issues faced by modern people. Malnutrition is a common complication of malignant tumors severely affecting the survival and prognosis of patients with malignant tumors. Timely nutritional intervention can help improve the prognosis of patients with malignant tumors. However the absence of a universally accepted "gold standard" for diagnosing malnutrition continues to pose challenges in clinical practice leading to confusion in both diagnosis and intervention. In 2018 the four major global nutrition societies jointly developed the Global Leadership Initiative on Malnutrition GLIM to unify the criteria for malnutrition. The diagnostic methods of GLIM criteria in the diagnosis of malnutrition in patients with malignant tumors have been progressively elucidated since its release and the diagnostic items have been gradually refined. The various diagnostic entries of the GLIM criteria are being progressively refined and clarified and their accuracy in diagnosing malnutrition and their predictive ability for clinical outcomes are being gradually verified. These advantages give the GLIM criteria the potential to become the gold standard for malnutrition diagnosis. Furthermore improved versions of the GLIM criteria as well as prognostic models based on the GLIM criteria are also being gradually developed. However studies using the GLIM criteria as a diagnostic criterion for malnutrition and to guide clinical nutritional interventions need to be further developed. This review systematically reviewed the application of GLIM criteria in malnourished patients with malignant tumors found a series of progresses and shortcomings in its clinical application and made outlooks for future application and concluded that GLIM criteria are of higher value in the clinical application of malnutrition in malnourished patients with malignant tumors.