AIM: To determine the influence of gender on theclinicopathologic characteristics and survival of patients withhepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).METHODS: A retrospective analysis of medical records wasperformed in 299 patients with HCC and their clinicopathologicfeatures and survival were compared in relation to gender.RESULTS: There were 260 male (87%) and 39 femalepatients (13%),with a male-to-female ratio of 6.7:1.Femalepatients had lower mean serum bilirubin levels (P=0.03),lower proportion of alcohol abuse (P=0.002),smaller meantumor size (P=0.02),more frequent nodular type but lessfrequent massive and diffuse types of HCC (P=0.01),wereless advanced in Okuda’s staging (P=0.04),and lessfrequently associated with venous invasion (P=0.03).Themedian survivals in females (14 too) were significantly longerthan that of male patients (4 mo) (P=0.004,log-rank test).Multivariate analysis demonstrated that high serum alpha-fetoprotein levels,venous invasion,extrahepatic metastasisand lack of therapy were independent factors related tounfavorable prognosis.However,gender did not constitutea predictive variable associated with patient survival.CONCLUSION: Female patients tend to have highersurvival rates than males.These differences were probablydue to more favorable pathologic features of HCC at initialdiagnosis and greater likelihood to undergo curative therapyin female patients. AIM: To determine the influence of gender on theclinicopathologic characteristics and survival of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) .METHODS: A retrospective analysis of medical records wasperformed in 299 patients with HCC and their clinicopathologic features and survival were compared in relation to gender .RESULTS: There with a male-to-female ratio of 6.7: 1.Femalepatients had lower mean serum bilirubin levels (P = 0.03), lower proportion of alcohol abuse (P = 0.002 (P = 0.02), more frequent nodular type but less frequent massive and diffuse types of HCC (P = 0.01), were no advanced in Okuda’s staging (P = 0.04), and less frequently associated with venous invasion (P = 0.03 ). The medium survivals in females (14 too) were significantly longerthan that of male patients (4 mo) (P = 0.004, log-rank test). Multivariate analysis of that high serum alpha-fetoprotein levels, venous invasion, extrahepatic metastasis and lack of of th erapy were independent factors related tounfavorable prognosis. Gender, did not constitute predictive variable associated with patient survival. CONCLUSION: Female patients tend to have highersurvival rates than males. The differences were probablydue to more favorable pathologic features of HCC at initial diagnosis and greater likelihood to undergo curative therapyin female patients.