Abstract: Objective To investigate the association between MMP-9 and MMP-2 gene SNPs of promoter regions and both infiltration and metastasis in hepatocellular carcinoma. Methods PCR- restriction fragment length polymorphism(PCR-RFLP) technique was applied to detect MMP-2 and MMP-9 promoter SNPs in 28 patients with hepatocellular carcinoma(8 cases with metastasis) and 42 healthy people. Results The risk of early metastasis of MMP-9-1562TT genotype was increased up to 1.25-fold(95%CI,3.64~5.69)，compared with MMP-9-1562CC or CT genotype，and irrelevant to the age or gender of patients.The risk of liver cancer in population harboring MMP-9-1562TT and MMP-2-1306CC or CT genotypes was significantly higher than in those harboring MMP-9-1562TT,MMP-2-1306CC or TT alone. Conclusion MMP-2-1306T/C polymorphism alone is not a risk factor of primary liver cancer，although has synergistic interactions with MMP-9-1562C/T genotype，MMP-2 and MMP-9 gene polymorphism are related to the infiltration and metastasis of primary liver cancer.