Liver cancer is a kind of malignant tumor, which is characterized by insidious onset, long latent period, high malignancy, rapid progress, strong invasiveness, easy metastasis and poor prognosis. Its incidence rate is increasing year by year, and the clinical efficacy is not satisfactory. Therefore, patients often ask whether Chinese medicine or Western medicine is better for liver cancer treatment. In fact, Chinese medicine and Western medicine have their respective strengths and weaknesses. They should vary according to the person, the time and the severity of the disease. Choosing the appropriate treatment method is the most important factor to improve the prognosis of liver cancer. Surgical resection is the first choice for early stage liver cancer. Early resection is the key to improve the survival rate, and the smaller the tumor, the higher the five-year survival rate. For large hepatocellular carcinoma that cannot be resected, multi-modal comprehensive treatment can be adopted. For example, hepatic artery embolization chemotherapy, which is a non-surgical tumor treatment method, has good efficacy on liver cancer and is even recommended as the preferred option among non-surgical treatments. Intratumoral injection of anhydrous alcohol, ultrasound-guided percutaneous hepatic penetration into the tumor to inject anhydrous alcohol for the treatment of liver cancer. It is preferred for hepatocellular carcinoma with tumor diameter ≤ 3 cm and the number of nodules is less than 3 with cirrhosis and inoperable. Radiotherapy is suitable for unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma with tumor limitation, and its efficacy is usually better if a larger dose is tolerated. Biological therapy is not only to cooperate with surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy to reduce the suppression of immunity and eliminate residual tumor cells. Chinese herbal medicine treatment is more suitable for patients with advanced liver cancer and those who cannot tolerate other treatments due to severe liver function loss, which can improve the body’s general condition and prolong life. Chinese herbal medicine for cancer treatment is of great significance to alleviate the symptoms and pain of cancer patients, improve the quality of survival, prolong life and reduce the mortality rate of cancer. There are five major characteristics of TCM for cancer treatment: 1. Strong overall concept. Although liver cancer grows in the liver of the body, it is actually a systemic disease. For most liver cancer patients, local treatment cannot solve the problem of radical cure, while TCM has an important role in improving both local symptoms and systemic conditions of patients because it starts from a holistic concept and implements evidence-based treatment, which not only considers local treatment but also adopts evidence-based treatment. 2.Maximum protection of liver function . The liver is involved in various digestive and metabolic activities of the body. Once the liver function is abnormal, a series of disorders such as sugar metabolism, protein metabolism and fat substitution will occur. Most liver cancer patients often die from liver failure or gastrointestinal hemorrhage caused by portal hypertension. Abnormal liver function will also result in insufficient protein synthesis and low protein, causing massive ascites. The formula of Chinese medicine that strengthens the spleen and regulates qi, tonifies the liver and kidney is used to maximize the restoration and protection of liver function, promote the increase of patient’s diet, eliminate ascites and get rid of jaundice. The treatment with formulae for activating blood circulation and removing blood stasis, softening and dispersing hard knots can achieve the effect of decreasing AFP and controlling the continued growth of tumor. 3.Preventing recurrence and metastasis of liver cancer. Surgery can certainly remove the cancer, but there are still residual cancer, or regional lymph node metastasis, or the presence of cancer clots in blood vessels, etc. Long-term treatment with TCM after surgery can prevent recurrence and metastasis. Chinese herbal medicines, whether in single or compound formulations, have shown better anti-hepatocellular carcinoma effects in clinical and experimental studies. The mechanism involves blocking oncogenic mutagenesis, directly killing or inducing apoptosis of hepatocellular carcinoma cells, inhibiting cellular DNA synthesis and blocking cell cycle, inducing differentiation of hepatocellular carcinoma cells, enhancing the immune function of the body and the potentiation and reduction of toxicity in combination with chemotherapy drugs. 4.Improve patients’ quality of life and life quality. The advantages of holistic treatment of TCM can restore the dynamic balance of the body, improve the sensitivity of radiotherapy and chemotherapy, minimize the toxic side effects, improve the quality of life of advanced tumor patients and prolong the survival period with tumor. In conclusion, Western medicine has its own advantages in the treatment of liver cancer. The advantage of Western medicine is fast effect, while the advantage of Chinese medicine is less side effects and easy to be accepted by patients. In general, the treatment of tumor should be combined with Chinese and Western medicine. In the early and middle stages, radical surgery and radiotherapy should be the main treatment methods, and combined with Chinese medicine can play the role of reducing toxicity and increasing effectiveness, and after surgery and radiotherapy, Chinese medicine can be used to prevent recurrence and metastasis.