To investigate the expression and significance of the ? glucuronidase(? G) gene in the patients with primary hepatocellular carcinoma(HCL), ? G gene was detected in the carcinoma tissue of 54 cases of HCL, 51 cases of cirrhosis tissue of HCL and 10 normal liver tissue by immuno fluorescence, immunohistochemistry and in situ hybridization respectively. The results showed that the expression level of ? G gene in HCL was much higher than that in the normal tissue and the expression level of ? G gene in peri carcinoma tissue was much higher than that in the carcinoma tissue. The data also showed that the expression level of ? G gene was highly correlated with metastasis and differentiation, but not related to tumor size, pathologic type, AFP and serum HBsAg level. It suggested that ? G gene could be used as a predictor for diagnosis and metastasis of hepatocellular carcinoma.