Abstract: Objective To evaluate the expression and significance of survivin isomer (survivin-ΔEx3) in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Methods Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was used to detect the expression of survivin and survivin-ΔEx3 in 26 cases of hepatocellular carcinoma, 24 cases of pericarcinomatous liver tissue. The relationship between the expression of survivin-ΔEx3 mRNA and clinicopathological data was determined. The relationship between survivin-ΔEx3 and survivin was analyzed. Results Positive survivin-ΔEx3 mRNA expression was found in 15 out of the 26 (58%) patients but was completely negative in adjacent normal tissues. The expression of survivin-ΔEx3 mRNA in HCC was not correlated with gender, HBsAg, cirrhosis, tumor number, tumor size, tumor encapsulation, tumor thrombus and lymph node metastasis (P>0.05), but signifi cantly correlated with histological differentiation and TNM stage (P<0.05). There was no signifi cant correlation between the expression of survivin-ΔEx3 and survivin (P>0.05). Conclusion The high-expression of survivin-ΔEx3 might evaluate the invasion and progression of HCC, which had no correlation with the expression of survivin.