Objective: The purpose of the experiment is to examine the expressions of CD44 on hepatocellular carcinomas and to study the effects on the differentiation and vascular invasion. Methods: Sixty-seven specimens of hepatocellular carcinoma were obtained from surgical excisions (15 cases with intrahepatic vascular invasions and 47 with both cancerous and non-cancerous liver tissue). Immunohistochemical stainings of CD44s and CD44v6 were performed

and SPSS software was applied for statistical analysis. Results: Fourteen cases were (

)(

)CD44s positive in the tumor tissues14/6720.90%and CD44v6 positive in 18 cases 18/6726.87%. (Both expressions correlated with neither tumor cell differentiation nor vascular invasionP>)0.05. Compared (with the non-cancerous liver tissue

CD44v6 was significantly differentP<)0.01. Conclusion: The overexpression of CD44v6 in hepatocellular carcinoma is more significant than that of CD44s. However

they were not correlated with differentiation and intrahepatic vascular invasion.