Objective:To investigate the association between the X-ray repair cross complementing(XRCC) group 5, XRCC6 and XRCC7 polymorphisms and risk of acute myeloid leukemia(AML). Methods:This hospital-based case-control study included 120 AML patients and 210 cancer-free controls in a Chinese population. Three polymorphisms of XRCC5, XRCC6 and XRCC7 were genotyped using the polymerase chain reaction(PCR) or polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism(PCR-RFLP) method. Results: We found that there was a significant decrease in risk of AML associated with the XRCC6 -61 CG/GG genotype(adjusted odd ratio(OR) = 0.55; 95% confident interval(CI) = 0.34-0.89) compared with the -61CC genotype. For the novel tandem repeat polymorphism (VNTR) in the XRCC5 promoter, we found when the XRCC5 six genotypes were dichotomized(i.e., 2R/2R, 2R/1R versus 2R/0R, 1R/1R, 1R/0R and 0R/0R), the latter group was associated with increased risk of AML(adjusted OR = 1.67; 95% CI = 1.00~2.79) compared to 2R/2R+2R/1R genotype. However, the XRCC7 6721G>T polymorphism had no effect on risk of AML. Conclusion:The XRCC6 -61C > G and XRCC5 2R/1R/0R polymorphisms, but not XRCC7 6721G > T polymorphism, could play an important role in the development of AML. Larger scale studies with more detailed data on environment exposure are needed to verify these findings.