Abstract: Objective: To investigate the expression and clinical significance of gene of phosphate and tension homology deleted on chromsome ten( PTEN) and p53 in hepatocellular carcinoma( HCC) sample. Methods: The protein levels of PTEN and p53 were examined by EliVision immunohistochemistry in 70 samples of HCC tissue and 40 samples of adjacent hepatic tissue,while the correlation between the expression and clinicopathological features was analyzed. Results: The positive expression rate of PTEN in HCC tissue was 57. 1%,significantly lower than that in adjacent hepatic tissue,which the positive expression rate was 95. 0%( P 0. 01). Patients with advanced stage of tumor or lymph node metastasis had a lower tendency to express PTEN in HCC tissue( P 0. 01). The positive expression rate of p53 was 60. 0% in HCC tissue,significantly higher than that in adjacent hepatic tissue,which the positive expression rate was 15. 0%( P 0. 01). There were no statistical significance for the p53 expression in HCC tissue in clinicopathological parameters such as tumor size,pathologic grade,TNM stage and lymphnode metastasis( P 0. 05). The expression of PTEN was negatively related with that of p53 in HCC tissue( P 0. 05). Conclusions: The expression of PTEN may be associated with the progression of HCC. It may serve as an index for prognosis of HCC.