BACKGROUND: The elevation of neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) has adverse effects on the prognosis of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) who have received liver transplantation (LT). The Hangzhou criteria are set for selecting HCC patients for LT. The present study aimed to establish a set of new criteria combining the NLR and Hangzhou criteria for selecting HCC patients for LT. METHODS: Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was done to determine the optimal NLR threshold. Univariate and multivariate analyses were made to evaluate the factors affecting the outcomes of HCC patients after LT. We also proposed new criteria consisting of the elevated NLR and Hangzhou criteria. ROC analysis was carried out to validate the feasibility of the new criteria. RESULTS: Three hundred and five HCC patients were included in this study. The mean follow-up time of these patients was 5.4 years. Of the 305 patients, 197 (64.6%) showed elevated NLRs (NLR >4). The recurrence-free survival rates of the patients with elevated NLRs at 1, 3 and 5 years were lower than those of the patients with normal NLRs (NLR <= 4) (50.1%, 21.7% and 20.2% vs 80.5%, 58.7% and 56.4%, respectively; P<0.001). The overall survival rate was lower in the patients with elevated NLR than in those with normal NLR at 1,3 and 5 years (60.8%, 27.0% and 22.5% vs 78.4%, 51.1% and 47.8%, respectively; P<0.001). Multivariate analysis demonstrated that an NLR >4 (P=0.034), total tumor size >8 cm (P=0.005), alpha-fetoprotein level >400 mu g/L (P=0.007) and the presence of vascular invasion (P=0.003) were independent predictors of HCC recurrence in post-transplant patients. We proposed a set of new criteria based on the elevated NLR and Hangzhou criteria. A ROC analysis demonstrated that the patients with scores >= 1 had an area under the curve of 0.764. CONCLUSION: The criteria combining the elevated NLR and Hangzhou criteria can be used to select patients with HCC for LT.