Objective We aimed to investigate the role of McMaster model of family therapy in improving family function of patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).Methods Patients who had advanced HCC and received transarterial embolization (TAE) or transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) from Department of Hepatobiliary Ⅰ,Eastern Hepatobiliary Surgery Hospital between October 1,2012 and June 25,2013 were randomly divided into two groups:the experimental group (51 patients) and the control group (49 patients).The control group received routine family support education.The experimental group not only executed routine family support education,but also was given McMaster model of family therapy according to evaluation results of family assessment device (FAD) on the second and third day of hospitalization.The status of family function of all patients were assessed by FAD on the fnrst day of hospitalization and fourth week after therapy.We compared the status of family function between the two groups.Results In age,gender,educational level,place of residence,occupation,family economic status,medical payment,liver or kidney function,HBV infection,cirrhosis and tumor burden,no statistical differences were found between the experimental group and the control group patients before TAE or TACE.Two groups were dysfunction in communication,roles,affective responsiveness,affective involvement,behavior control,and general function in addition to problem solving before TAE or TACE.No statistical differences were found between two groups.After the therapy,compared with the control group,those patients in the experimental group had a lower level scoring in communication,roles,affective responsiveness,affective involvement,behavior control,and general function in addition to problem solving on the fourth week after the therapy,t value was-2.544,-3.767,-3.904,-2.848,-4.950 and-4.953,the difference had statistical significance.Conclusions McMaster model of family therapy may help to improve family function of patients with advanced HCC.