Abstract: Objective To investigate the influence of marital status on the prognosis of patients with liver cancer. Methods Information from 9 759 patients was extracted from the SEER database，and univariate Log-rank and multivariate Cox risk scale models were used to evaluate the relationship between marital status and the prognosis of liver cancer. Results The death risk of divorced or separated patients（MHR = 1. 24，95%CI（1. 14，1. 34）， P < 0. 001），single patients （MHR = 1. 22，95%CI（1. 13，1. 32），P < 0. 001）， widowed patients（MHR = 1. 21，95%CI（1. 09，1. 33），P < 0. 001）was higher than that of married patients，and the survival rate of married patients was higher than that of divorced，separated，single，and widowed patients. There were significant differences in the effects of marital status among HCC patients with different ages，races，tumor stages，and degrees of tumor differentiation，and there were statistically significant differences in the effects of marital status among the middle-aged group（χ2 = 99. 6，P < 0. 001），White group（χ2 = 84. 6，P < 0. 001），tumor stage I group（χ2 = 87. 7，P < 0. 001），highly differentiated group（χ2 = 67. 1，P < 0. 001）and moderately differentiated group（χ2 = 65. 0，P < 0. 001）. Conclusion Marital status can be an independent prognostic factor for patients with liver cancer to a certain extent，and the death risk coefficient of married patients with liver cancer is lower than that of patients with other marital statuses.

Key words: liver cancer, marital status, prognosis, SEER database