Objective To investigate the intratumoral expression of the metastasis-associated in colon cancer 1 (MACC1) and to discuss the clinical relevance associated with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Methods Immunohistochemistry staining was performed to assess the expressions of MACC1 protein in 108 HCC liver tissues and matched adjacent non-tumor liver tissues. Quantilative real-time PCR (qPCR) was employed to examine MACC1 mRNA expression in 30 HCC tissues and the corresponding adjacent non-tumor tissue, and 20 normal liver tissues. The association of MACC1 expression in HCC tissues with the clinicopathological and prognosis was analyzed. Results Immunohistochemistry results showed that the positive rate of MACC1 in HCC tissues was significantly higher than that in the para-carcinoma tissue (49.1% vs 34.2%, P=0.011). qPCR revealed that MACC1 mRNA expression in HCC tissues was significantly higher than that in the noncancerous liver tissues and normal liver tissues(P<0.001). One-factor analysis of variance indicated that MACC1 expression in human HCC tissue was significantly related to tumor size, presence of capsule and pathological types(P<0.05). Survival analysis disclosed that the 1-year, 3-year and 5-year survival rates were 0.650, 0.492, and 0.280 for MACC1 positive patients and 0.799, 0.684, and 0.566 for MACC1 negative patients, respectively, with significant differences found between the two groups(P=0.006). Conclusion Expression of MACC1 in HCC tissues is associated with malignancy evolution and clinical outcome of HCC patients; MACC1 may serve as an important molecule for predicting prognosis patients with hepatic cancer and a new target for gene therapy of liver cancer.