Objective: To study the expression of blood AFP mRNA in patients with recurrent or distant metastasis of human hepatocellular cacinoma (HCC). Methods: We examined 40 blood samples from patients with recurrent or distant metastasis HCC by nested RT-PCR to find out AFP mRNA. Results: AFP mRNA was detected in 7 blood samples from 19 HCC with recurrent HCC (36.8%) and in all HCC patients with distant metastasis(100%). Conclusions: AFP mRNA may be used as a marker of HCC recurrent and metastasis.