Objective To investigate the relationship between liver cirrhosis and prognosis of HBV-related hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Methods The clinical data of 166 patients with HBV-related HCC from 2005 to 2012 were retrospectively reviewed. All patients received liver resection for the treatment of HCC. Among them,134 were male and 32 were female. The patients’ age was within a range of 32-73 years at the time of diagnosis.Of the 166 patients, 25 did not have liver cirrhosis, 61 had liver cirrhosis with small nodules ( ≤ 3 mm), 80 had liver cirrhosis with big nodules (> 3 mm). The recurrence rate (RR) and overall survival (OS) were analyzed and compared among the three groups. Results There were significant differences in RR and OS among the three groups (P < 0.05), and the HCC patients without liver cirrhosis had better RR and OS than the HCC patients with liver cirrhosis, while the differences of RR and OS were not significant between the HCC patients with small-nodule liver cirrhosis and those with big-nodule liver cirrhosis (P > 0.05). Conclusions HCC patients without liver cirrhosis have better RR and OS than those with liver cirrhosis.