Abstract: Objective : To study the correlation of contrast-enhanced ultrasound features with the expression of na-sopharyngeal carcinoma associated gene 6 (NGX6) in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma. Methods : A totalof 45 patients with hepatocellular carcinoma confirmed by surgery and pathology were recruited. The entirecontrast-enhanced ultrasound procedures were recorded and analyzed by QONTRAST-QRADIO software. Freshtissue samples were collected during surgery. Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction was used to detectthe expression of NGX6 in samples of hepatocellular carcinoma. These 45 cases were divided into two groups:the group with positive NGX6 expression (group 1) and the group without NGX6 expression (group 2). Results :Positive NGX6 expression was found in 16 (35.5% ) of the 45 samples of hepatocellular carcinoma. Con-trast-enhanced ultrasound showed a quick wash-out pattern in 32 cases and a slow wash-out pattern in 13 cases.An enlarged enhancement range was observed in 30 cases. Twenty-eight cases had clear margins and 17 caseshad dim margins. Twenty-six cases had a complete enhancement and 19 cases had an incomplete enhancement.Thirty-eight cases had radical nourishing artery flow and 17 cases had portal vein tumor thrombus enhancement.The mean initiation time of enhancement, peak time, peak intensity, and the time of hepatocellular carcinomabecoming iso-enhancing and hypo-enhancing were 14.2±3.9s, 13.1±3.5s, 26.6±4.12s, 24.5±5.27s, and 51.3±15.4%in Group 1 and 54.2±14.3%, 36.8±7.2s, 33.9±9.4s, 48.3±9.4s, and 46.5±7.1s in Group 2, respectively. No sig-nificant difference was found in perfusion time and peak intensity between the two groups. Pearson correlationanalysis found no significant correlation between the variation time of contrast-enhanced ultrasound or its peakintensity and the expression of NGX6 mRNA (P>0.05). The expression of NGX6 mRNA was correlated with tumormargin (χ²=10.499, P<0.01, contingency coefficient=0.435), range of enhancement area of the tumor (χ²=5.867,P<0.05, contingency coefficient=0.34) and enhancement of portal vein tumor thrombus (χ²=6.749,P<0.01,contingency coefficient=0.361). No correlation was shown between NGX6 expression and the pattern of ultrasoundcontrast agent clearance, complete or incomplete enhancement, or artery flow. Conclusion : The expression of NGX6 is closely related to invasion and metastasis of hepatocellular carcinoma. Contrast-enhanced ultrasoundcan provide valuable information and guide targeted cancer therapy