Abstract: Objective To correlate expression of E-cadherin and EpCAM with the survival prognosis of patients with nodular hepato-cellular carcinoma（HCC）. Methods A total of 100 patients with HCC who underwent surgery at the Affiliated Tumor Hospital of Guangxi Medical University between 2008 and 2011 were selected for this study.These patients had been diagnosed with HCC on the basis of pathology，and they had primary tumors less than 5 cm in diameter.Patients were divided into 3 groups：single nodule（SN） group（n=61），single nodular with extranodular growth（SNEG） group（n=21），and a confluent multinodular（CM） group（n=18）.Expres-sion of E-cadherin and EpCAM was assessed in each group by immunohistochemistry，and Kaplan-Meier survival analysis was per-formed. Results Mean postoperative survival was 33.51±0.89 months in the SN group， which was significantly higher than the 24.25±2.58 months in the SNEG group（P=0.000） and higher （but not significantly） than the 29.30±2.59 months in the CM group.The rate of expression of E-cadherin was 40.98%（25/61） in the SN group，9.52%（2/21） in the SNEG group，and 27.78%（5/18） in the CM group （P＜0.05）.The corresponding results for EpCAM were 22.95%（14/61），52.38%（11/21），and 27.78%（5/18）（P＜0.05）.The rates of E-cadherin and EpCAM expression differed significantly between the SN and SNEG groups（P＜0.05 in both cases）.Pearson correlation analysis showed a negative correlation in the levels of these two proteins（r=-0.580，P<0.05）. Conclusions Patients in the SNEG group may be at risk of HCC recurrence.Low expression of E-cadherin and high expression of EpCAM are associated with poor prognosis in patients with HCC.The negative correlation be
tween E-cadherin and EpCAM expression suggests that these two proteins may be used together to predict prognosis of patients with HCC.

Key words:  Liver neoplasms, Nodular hepatocellular carcinoma, Gross type, E-cadherin, EpCAM