We previously reported that miR-185 is associated with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) venous metastasis analysed by miRNA-array profile. The aim of this study is to further investigate the clinicopathological significance and prognostic value of miR-185 in early stage HCC. We classified 95 patients with early stage HCC into treated recurrence group (TR) and none treated recurrence group (NTR), and detected the miR-185 expression levels in TR and NTR groups. We found that low miR-185 expression correlated with more tumor recurrence (37/46), while high miR-185 level led to lower recurrence rate (17/49) (P<0.05). There was no direct relationship between miR-185 and clinicopathological features, including age, gender, ALT, AFP, liver cirrhosis, tumor size, tumor encapsulation, tumor differentiation (P>0.05). Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that low miR-185 group had a remarkable lower survival rate and shorter time to recurrence than high miR-185 group (P<0.05). Univariate and multivariate analysis, using Cox's proportional hazards model, also indicated that low miR-185 expression was a sensitive prognostic factor for survival and recurrence in early stage HCC (P<0.05). We upregulated or downregulated miR-185 expression by transfected miR-185 mimics or inhibitor into HCC cell lines, and observed the influence of miR-185 on HCC cells in vitro. Our results manifested that miR-185 could suppress the tumor cell growth and invasive ability (P<0.05). Therefore, miR-185 might be an effective and sensitive biomarker of HCC in early stage, and the upregulation of miR-185 might be considered to be a potentially important molecular treatment strategy for patients with HCC.