Abstract: Objective To study the expression of estrogen receptor ER-β in male hepatocellular carcinoma（HCC） and its clinical significance. Methods Expression of ER-β in samples from 36 male patients with primary HCC was detected by immunohistochemistry.Correlation between ER-β expression,clinical and pathological parameters and prognosis of patients was analyzed with SPSS16.0 statistical software. Results The positive expression rate of ER-β was 16.7% in HCC tissue samples,which was negatively correlated with serum AFP level（P＜0.05）.The expression rate of ER-β was significantly lower in patients with an abnormal serum AFP level.However,it was not correlated with the age of patients,tumor differentiation,HBsAg,hepatic cirrhosis,tumor capsule,portal embolism or tumor size.Cox regression analysis showed that patients with positive ER-β expression tended to have a longer median progress free survival（PFS） time than those with negative ER-β expression（P＞0.05）. Conclusion Low or absent ER-β expression may be one of the important factors for the occurrence and development of human HCC.