PURPOSE: Papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) has a good prognosis, and it's known to be related to the apoptosis of papillary thyroid cancer. The expression of bcl-2 is thought to be associated with the inhibition of apoptosis. We evaluated the differences of bcl-2 and P53 between PTC and the control (normal tissue and benign lesion). We then analyzed the correlation between the bcl-2 and P53 expressions and the classic prognostic factors. METHODS: Between January 2001 and December 2005, 30 patients who underwent total thyroidectomy for the PTC were included in this study and immunohistochemical staining was performed on the tumors. RESULTS: bcl-2 was expressed in 18 cases (60%) in their PTC (P<0.05). The expression of P53 was not significantly related with the clinicopathological factors, but P53 was expressed in 9 cases (30%) of PTC (P<0.05). The positive staining for was noted in 18 cases (62.1%) of the PTC tissue among the 30 patients, and as the TNM stage progresses, the expression rate of was significantly decrease for 7 stage I cases (100%), for 4 stage ll cases (80%) and for 7 stage ll cases (38.9%). CONCLUSION: bcl-2 was expressed more as the TNM stage of PTC decreases. So bcl-2 is possibly useful as a prognostic factor for PTC, but further studies are needed for confirming its significance.