Abstract: Objective To investigate the single nucleotide polymorphisms （SNP） of blood IL-18 gene-137G/C and -607A/C in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma（HCC）. Methods A total of 178 patients with HBV-related HCC and 251 healthy persons were recruited in this study,and peripheral blood were obtained for SNP detection of IL-18 gene-137G/C and -607A/C site by polymerase chain reaction-ligase detection reaction （PCR-LDR）. Results The frequencies of IL-18-37 G/C gene GG,GC and CC genotypes in patients with HCC and healthy persons were 75.3% vs. 47.0% （P<0.05）,20.8% vs. 51.4% （P<0.05） and 3.9% vs. 1.6% （P>0.05）,and the frequencies of G and C alleles were 93.6% vs. 72.7% （P<0.05） and 6.4% vs. 27.3% （P<0.05）,respectively;the frequencies of IL-18-607A/C gene AA, AC and CC genotypes in the two groups were 37.6% vs. 13.5% （P<0.05）,43.3 % vs. 66.9% （P<0.05） and 19.1% vs. 19.5% （P>0.05）,and the frequencies of A and C alleles were 59.3% vs. 47.0% （P<0.05） and 40.7% vs. 53.0% （P<0.05）;the frequency distributions of IL-18-137G/C site GG genotype and G allele in patients with HCC were significantly higher than in healthy persons （P<0.05）,and the frequencies of IL-18-607A/C site AA genotype and A allele in patients with HCC were also significantly higher than in the control（P<0.05）. Conclusion Individuals carrying IL-18-137G/C and IL-18-607A/C gene might be at the risk of HCC susceptible,especially in those with underlying HBV infection, and screening the specific gene might help find out the patients with HCC early in clinical practice.

Key words: Hepatoma, Interleukin-18 gene, Single nucleotide polymorphism