Objective To investigate the relationship of the nutritional status with liver function and clinical outcomes of liver cancer patients treated with surgery.Methods Altogether 112 hospitalized patients undergoing surgical treatments for liver cancer were enrolled from October 2011 to October 2013.Their general clinical data were collected,including creatinine-height index (CHI),arm circumference,grip strenghth,albumin,prealbumin,and transferrin.The nutritional status was assessed using Patient-Generated Subjective Global Assessment (PG-SGA).The liver function was assessed with Child-Pugh classification.Postoperative infectious complications and the hospital stays were recorded to assess the clinical outcomes.The correlation between nutritional status and liver function,and that between nutritional status and clinical outcomes were analyzed.Results Among the 112 patients,70 (62.5％) were in normal nutritional status,34 (30.4％) were with moderate malnutrition,and 8 (7.1％) were with severe malnutrition according to PG-SGA scores.PG-SGA assessment showed strong consistence with CHI nutritional assessment (κ =0.760,P =0.000),and moderate consistence with arm circumference assessment (κ =0.564,P =0.000),and grip strength assessment (κ =0.523,P =0.000).The live function classified by Child-Pugh was found highly correlated with PG-SGA assessment (rs =0.829,P =0.000).Postoperative infectious complications and hospital stays were both positively correlated with PG-SGA assessment (r =0.349,P =0.000 ; r =0.624,P =0.000).Conclusions PD-SGA combining with CHI can be used for the nutritional status assessment of liver cancer patients undergoing surgical treatments.The nutritional status of the patients has positive correlation with live function,infectious complications,and postoperative hospital stays.