The purpose of this study was to investigate the expression of transforming growth factor beta-activated kinase 1 (TAK1) and its activation ligand, TAK1-binding protein 1 (TAB1), in non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC) and adjacent normal tissues and to analyze the relevance between TAK1 and TAB1 protein expression and the pathological features of NSCLC patients. Surgical resection NSCLC specimens were collected from 74 patients undergoing surgery in our hospital from September 2003 to July 2008; tumor-adjacent normal tissue specimens were collected as controls. All cases were pathologically confirmed after surgery, and pathological data were complete for all patients. The expression of TAK1/TAB1 proteins in NSCLC and adjacent cancer tissues was detected by immunohistochemical analysis. The correlation between TAK1/TAB1 protein expression and the clinicopathological features and outcome of NSCLC was assessed. The positive expression ratio of TAK1 in NSCLC tissue was 63.5%, which was significantly higher than that in tumor-adjacent normal tissue (31.1%). The positive expression ratio of TAB1 in NSCLC tissue was 51.4%, which was significantly higher than that in tumor-adjacent normal tissue (24.3%). Further analysis showed that positive protein expression of TAK1 and TAB1 was unrelated to patient gender, age, tumor size, degree of differentiation, and history of smoking (P>0.05) but was significantly related to clinical stage and lymph node metastasis (P<0.05). Additionally, the expression of TAK1 as well as TAB1 was negatively related to NSCLC patient prognosis, and patients with positive protein expression had a significantly lower 5-year survival rate than those with negative protein expression (P<0.05). TAK1/TAB1 expression in NSCLC tissue is significantly increased and closely associated with patient clinical prognosis. These two proteins are likely to become new therapeutic targets for the treatment of NSCLC.