Small liver cancer, as the name suggests, is a smaller liver cancer. Before the 1980s, people defined liver cancer with a diameter of less than or equal to 5 centimeters as small liver cancer, while nowadays, the concept of small liver cancer usually refers to liver cancer with a diameter of less than or equal to 3 centimeters. In addition to its small size, small liver cancer is also characterized by slower growth, generally lower malignancy, less possibility of metastasis and better prognosis. If treated properly, the 5-year survival rate should be over 80%, and a considerable number of patients can survive for a long time. There are various treatment options for small hepatocellular carcinoma, including partial hepatectomy, interventional embolization, liver transplantation, anhydrous alcohol injection, radiofrequency ablation and other local treatments, as well as adjuvant immunotherapy and other measures. 1. Partial hepatectomy: To some extent, partial hepatectomy is a more thorough treatment, but it is a more traumatic and expensive treatment, often affected by factors such as liver function, liver cancer site and patients’ economic conditions, and is not an ideal choice for patients with heavy cirrhotic background. 2. Interventional embolization: Although it has a good therapeutic effect on liver cancer, its efficacy is restricted by the arterial blood supply of the tumor, and it is often difficult to kill liver cancer cells completely, and it has no obvious therapeutic effect on the potential lesions in the liver tissue around the cancer, so it cannot be the only treatment for liver cancer. 3. Liver transplantation: Small liver cancer is indeed one of the indications for liver transplantation, and liver transplantation has satisfactory efficacy in treating small liver cancer, and it is almost the only option for those patients whose liver function is so poor as to be nearly incompetent. However, the cost of liver transplantation is huge, and there are often some serious complications, and lifelong treatment is required, so at this stage in China, most patients can hardly afford the huge cost of liver transplantation. 4. Anhydrous alcohol injection: It is the earliest means of local treatment for liver cancer, but due to the extent of damage to liver cancer affected by the infiltration of alcohol, it is only applicable to small liver cancer, and its therapeutic effect is not certain, and has been replaced by local treatment modalities with more certain efficacy (such as radiofrequency ablation). 5. Immunotherapy or Chinese medicine treatment: often used as an adjuvant treatment procedure, the efficacy of which is limited when applied alone. Radiofrequency ablation for small liver cancer is one of the important advances in liver cancer treatment in recent years, and is a representative treatment modality of minimally invasive treatment for liver cancer, which is one of the future development trends of liver cancer treatment. Radiofrequency ablation has the following characteristics and advantages in the treatment of small hepatocellular carcinoma: the most important feature is the real efficacy. We have successfully treated many cases of small liver cancer patients with no local recurrence for 5 years after radiofrequency treatment, and also have better therapeutic effect for tumors with diameter around 7 cm or even larger. A large number of clinical studies at home and abroad have shown that for small liver cancer patients, the long-term efficacy of radiofrequency treatment is similar to that of liver transplantation and liver resection, and is significantly better than that of interventional embolization alone. In some case groups with better control of indications, the 5-year survival rate reaches 92%. The second major feature is that open surgery can be avoided. If liver cancer is located in the liver parenchyma, transdermal liver puncture is usually sufficient, and if liver cancer is close to the stomach and intestine, laparoscopic radiofrequency ablation can be chosen. Since radiofrequency ablation has the advantages of avoiding open trauma and causing slight damage to the liver, it is especially suitable for small hepatocellular carcinoma with poor liver function, high surgical risk or inoperable resection. Moreover, it can be repeatedly performed when necessary! The third feature is the relatively low cost, which is usually less than RMB 20,000. The fourth feature is the short hospital stay, and transdermal liver puncture radiofrequency ablation can even be performed on an outpatient basis.