The present study aimed to research pathogenesis and therapeutics of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) with the method of tissue metabolomics.A combined gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) method was developed suitable for analyzing the endogenous small molecule of liver cancer tissues and adjacent tissues.The unidimensional and multidimensional statistics were used to look for differential metabolites.And then,the KEGG and HMDB database were utilized to find related differential pathways and pathogenesis of HCC.The PCA and PLS-DA showed that there were significant differences on the endogenous small molecule of liver cancer tissues and adjacent tissues.Through the OPLS-Loading plot analysis,there were 25 differential metabolites and 36 relevant pathways.The differential pathways belong to carbohydrate metabolism,amino acid metabolism and mitochondrial transfer.There were 16 metabolites' area under the ROC curve which was bigger than 0.8,which were related with ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporters,galactose metabolism,amino sugar and nucleotide sugar metabolism.It was concluded that the Warburg effect exists in HCC cells.The energy of HCC cell was from glycolytic function,because the glycolysis was enhanced and the citric acid cycle decreased.Mitochondrial dysfunction and the increased cobalt content may correlate with the Warburg effect,which may be one of the pathogenesis of liver cancer,and expected to become the breakthrough point of a new targeting therapeutic approach.