Abstract: Objective To explore the correlation between genetic polymorphisms of tumor necrosis factor （TNF-α-308，TNF-α-238） and family clustering of primary liver cancer（PLC） in Guangxi. Methods Blood samples were collected from 124 families with a high incidence of PLC and from 129 control families.Genotype and alleles of TNF-α-308 and TNF-α-238 were determined by SNP microar-ray technology. Results The frequencies of TNF-α-308G/A genotype and TNF-α-308A allele in the PLC-clustering families （22.6%and 11.3%）were significantly higher than those in the control families（11.6% and 5.8%）.However，the two groups showed no statisti-cally significant differences in frequencies of the TNF-α-238 genotype or allele（P>0.05）. Conclusions TNF-α-308 genetic polymorph-ism is associated with susceptibility in families with high PLC incidence in Guangxi.In particular，the TNF-α-308A allele is proba-bly a risk factor for PLC in these families. In contrast，the TNF-α-238 polymorphism may not be associated with family clus-tering of PLC in Guangxi.

Key words: Liver neoplasms, TNF-α, Single nucleotide polymorphism, Family clustering