Liposarcoma is the most common soft tissue malignancy. We investigated the relationship between the expression of fibroblast growth factor -21 protein and recurrence in the liposarcoma tissues from 40 patients. The patients were divided into two groups (low/no- and high-expressing) for further survival analysis according to fibroblast growth factor -21 expression in their tumor tissue. Immunohistochemical staining showed that fibroblast growth factor -21 protein was located in the cytoplasm. The fibroblast growth factor -21 protein was significantly less expressed in liposarcoma than in normal tissue (p < 0.05). Fibroblast growth factor -21 protein expression was related to gender, but not age, cell differentiation or tumor size. The patients in the low/no fibroblast growth factor -21 expression group were more likely to relapse and die in a shorter period of time. The patients in the high-expression group had a better prognosis and less recurrence. fibroblast growth factor -21 has the potential to act both as a biomarker for liposarcoma prognosis as well as a marker for the response to therapy. (C) 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.