Metastasis-associated lung adenocarcinoma transcript 1(MALAT1), a long 
non-coding RNA (lncRNA), is up-regulated in many solid tumors and associated 
with cancer metastasis and recurrence. However, its role in hepatocellular 
carcinoma (HCC) remains poorly understood. In the present study, we evaluated 
the expression of MALAT1 by quantitative real-time PCR in 9 liver cancer cell 
lines and 112 HCC cases including 60 cases who received liver transplantation 
(LT) with complete follow-up data. Moreover, small interfering RNA (siRNA) was 
used to inhibit MALAT1 expression to investigate its biological role in tumor 
progression. We found that MALAT1 was up-regulated in both cell lines and 
clinical tissue samples. Patients with high expression level of MALAT1 had a 
significantly increased risk of tumor recurrence after LT, particularly in 
patients who exceeded the Milan criteria. On multivariate analysis, MALAT1 was 
an independent prognostic factor for predicting HCC recurrence (hazard ratio, 
3.280, P = 0.003).In addition, inhibition of MALAT1 in HepG2 cells could 
effectively reduce cell viability, motility, invasiveness, and increase the 
sensitivity to apoptosis. Our data suggest that lncRNA MALAT1 play an important 
role in tumor progression and could be a novel biomarker for predicting tumor 
recurrence after LT and serve as a promising therapeutic target.