Abstract: Objective: To explore the correlation among the expression of p53, p21, and PCNA in the negative surgical margin of early laryngeal cancer and its relationship with local recurrence of the cancer. Methods: Data of 92 patients with early laryngeal cancer admitted to the Tangshan Union Hospital from 2004 January to 2010 December were selected. Immunohistochemical method was used to detect the expression of p53, p21, and PCNA in the negative surgical margin tissues of cancer. All patients were followed up for two years to observe survival status and tumor recurrence. Results: The expression of P53, p21, and PCNA had no differences in the cancer tissues in terms of grade and stage. Two years after the surgery, 16 of the 92 patients with laryngeal cancer presented recurrence with a rate of 17.39%. The recurrence rates of expression of p53, p21 and PCNA protein in the positive cut edge were 50.00%, 34.21% and 33.33%, significantly higher than those of negative ones (8.33%, 5.56% and 9.68%). The positive rates of the three proteins were higher in the recurrence specimen than in the non-recurrence while there was a significant correlation between expression of PCNA and p21 (P < 0.01). The expression of both p21 and p53 in laryngeal carcinoma was also significantly correlated with the negative margin. Conclusion: The expression of p53, p21, and PCNA in the surgical margin of early laryngeal cancer are valuable biological markers for the prognosis of these patients. Thus, combined detection of p53, p21, and PCNA in laryngeal margin tissues can be used as a predictive indicator of the recurrence.