To evaluate apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) and its standard deviation (SD ) in preoperative predicting liver invasion by T3-staged gallbladder carcinoma (GBC). Forty-one consecutive patients with T3-staged resectable GBC were included and divided into two sets with (n=27) and without (n=14) liver invasion. All patients underwent DWI at b-values of 0, 20, 50, 80, 100, 200, 400, 600, 800, and 1,000 s/mm with a 3 T magnetic resonance imaging scanner before surgery. ADC and SD of tumour-adjacent and tumour-distant liver tissues were measured on DWI, and were compared by Mann-Whitney U-tests. If there was a significant difference in any derived parameter, the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) was used to assess performance of this parameter to predict liver invasion. DWI could differentiate between patients with and without liver invasion when b = 0, 1,000 s/mm (AUCs of ADC and SD were 0.697 and 0.714, respectively). In patients with liver invasion, mean ADC and SD of tumour-adjacent liver tissue were lower than of tumour-distant liver tissue when b = 0, 800 s/mm , and = 0, 1,000 s/mm (all p-values <0.05). To differentiate tumour-adjacent from tumour-distant liver tissues in patients with liver invasion, AUCs of ADC were 0.687 (b = 0, 800 s/mm ) and 0.680 (b = 0, 1,000 s/mm ), and AUCs of SD were 0.673 (b = 0, 800 s/mm ) and 0.731 (b = 0, 1,000 s/mm ). DWI could have potential value in preoperative predicting liver invasion by T3-staged GBC.