This study investigated the hypothesis that carcinogen-induced elevation of oxyradical during the hepatocarcinogenesis in rat. The hepatic preneoplastic lesions in the Spraque-Dawley rats were induced by the carcinogen treatment such as diethylnitrosamine(DEN) and acetylaminofluorene(AAF) in combination with partial hepatectomy(PH). The liver sample was taken at 2, 6, 10 and 16 months after carcinogen treatments followed by PH. Carcinogen treatments initially increased the indices of oxidative damage(activities of xanthine oxidase and production rates of superoxide anion, microsomal hydrogen peroxide, hydroxyl radical) in the liver compared to PH groups. However, cytosolic hydrogen peroxide did not change significantly throughout the full time period. Of hydrogen peroxide scavenger, the catalase was remained lower than PH groups, whereas the peroxidase was increased after carcinogen treatments. Morphologically, the immunohistochemical analysis with glutathione-S-transferase of a placenta form(GSTP) antibody was used to detect the induction of preneoplastic nodules. During the hepatocarcinogenesis, both production rate of hydroxyl radical and activity of glutathione-S-transferase(GST) markedly increased with the appearance of the preneoplastic nodule. These results indicated that the hydroxyl radical of reactive oxygen species seemed to have a major influence on the hepatocarcinogenesis and the effect of time after removal of the carcinogen also appeared to be highly critical in the hepatocarcinogenesis.