RESUMO
<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate whether there is a association between estrogen receptor beta (ERb) gene polymorphism and primary hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).</p><p><b>METHODS</b>100 primary HCC patients and 100 controls from southwestern China were recruited in this study. The polymorphism of RsaI and AluI in ERb gene was analyzed by PCR- restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP).</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>R allelic frequency was 35.0% and 51.0% in HCC patients and in control group, respectively, odds ratio (OR) was 0.517 [95% confidence intervals (CI) = 0.346-0.773], P less than 0.01. A allelic frequency was 20.5% and 11.0% in HCC patients and in control group, respectively, OR was 2.086 (95% CI = 1.191-3.654), P less than 0.01. Gene frequency of RsaI and AluI in the two groups was distributed with polymorphism.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>ERb gene polymorphism is associated with primary liver cancer. R allele may be the guard factor, and A allele may be its risk factor.</p>