摘要AIM To study the phase cancer tissue intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) expression of human cancer metastasis model in nude mice, and to analyze the relationship between ICAM-1 expression and the metastasis and recurrence of hepatocellular cancinoma (HCC).METHODS HCC tissues from liver cancer metastasis model in nude mice (LCI-D20) was orthotopically implanted, and ICAM-1 expression in HCC tissues at different growing time were detected by immunodot blot. Tumor size, intrahepatic and extrahepatic metastasis foci were observed by naked eyes and under light microscope.RESULTS ICAM-1 was positively correlated to the tumor growing time (r=0.88, P＜0.01) and tumor size r=0.5, P＜0.05). It was higher in metastatic HCC than in nonmetastatic HCC (8.24±0.95 vs 3.03±0.51, P＜0.01). ICAM-1 content in cancer tissues increased suddenly after metastasis occurred and then maintained in a high level. ICAM-1 was also higher in multimetastasis group than in monometastasis group (10.05±1.17 vs 5.48±0.49, P＜0.05).CONCLUSION Tissue ICAM-1 could predict not only the metastasis of human liver cancer metastasis model in nude mice early and sensitively, but also the metastasis degree. So tissue ICAM-1 may be a potential index indicating the status of metastasis of HCC patients.