The prognostic value of CD30 expression in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL)remains controversial. Herein, we performed this retrospective study to investigate the clinical and prognostic significance of CD30 expression in patients with DLBCL.Among all the 146 patients, the expression of CD30 was observed in 23 cases (15.7%).The DLBCL patients with CD30 expression showed more likely to present B symptoms, bone marrow involvement, non-germinal centre B-cell-like (Non-GCB) DLBCL, BCL-2 and Ki-67 overexpression (p<0.05). Patients with CD30 expression showed significantly poor overall and event-free survival compared with CD30 negative patients(p = 0.031 and 0.041, respectively), especially those with the high intermediate/high-risk international prognostic index (IPI)(p = 0.001 and 0.007, respectively). The prognostic value of CD30 expression retained in DLBCL patients treated with either CHOP (cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine,prednisone) or R-CHOP(rituximab+CHOP). The multivariate analysis revealed that the expression of CD30 remained an unfavorable factor for both overall and event-free survival (p = 0.001 and 0.002, respectively). In conclusion, these data suggest that CD30 is expressed predominantly in Non-GCBDLBCL. The expression of CD30 implied poor outcome in DLBCL patients treated with either CHOP or R-CHOP, especially those with the high intermediate/high-risk IPI, possibly indicating that anti-CD30 monoclonal antibody could be of clinical interest.