【Case】The author saw a male patient, 45 years old, in August 2012. The patient underwent surgical treatment in the same month, and the pathological diagnosis was “(left and right) hepatocellular carcinoma, coarse beam type, grade III”. After surgery, he developed ascites and pleural fluid, and was discharged from the hospital after he was treated with a combination of Chinese and Western medicine. The patient was discharged from the hospital in September 2012 with basically normal liver function, well-controlled hepatitis B virus and disappeared pleural fluid and ascites. After discharge from the hospital, the patient was instructed to insist on taking the Chinese medicine (without interruption) and to go to the local tertiary hospital every 2 to 3 months for liver enhancement MRI, and to resolutely change previous bad habits. 2 months later, the author was unsure and told the family on the phone that the patient must be taken to have an enhancement MRI. But things did not go as planned, and in February 2014 the patient showed significant loss of appetite, loss of energy, poor mental health and poor sleep. Ultrasound and chest X-ray revealed ascites and pleural fluid, and enhanced MRI revealed a diffuse cancer mass in the liver and cancer thrombi in the left and right branches of the portal vein and the main trunk. It was already end-stage cancer, with no therapeutic value and expected survival of no more than 2 months, unfortunately. Analysis] The patient had cancerous masses in the left and right liver at the time of surgery, which is a high-risk recurrence; the surgical pathology showed that the cancer cells were grade III, indicating high malignancy and easy recurrence. Therefore, postoperative anti-recurrence measures are especially important, as recurrence can occur unknowingly if one is not careful. In view of this situation, the author formulated an all-round treatment plan for the patient: (1) interventional therapy to prevent recurrence one month after surgery; (2) systemic regulation of Chinese medicine to prevent recurrence; (3) dietary therapy, mind adjustment, exercise and change of bad habits; (4) regular MRI review, in case the preventive measures are not in place, small recurrence foci can be detected in time and there is still a chance of cure. Regrettably, the family informed that the patient insisted on exercising at home, ate more vegetables and fruits, and did not stay up late, and his physical and mental strength improved day by day. However, after six months of persistence, the patient thought it was fine and thought that he was completely cured, so he let down his guard, did not insist on exercise, stopped the herbal medicine, and started staying up late, and the bad habits he had before he got sick were back. What is even more puzzling is that the patient was determined not to go for MRI, thinking that he could eat and drink and did not have any discomfort, so he did not need MRI. In this way, the cancer cells came to the front, developed and metastasized quietly, and when the patient felt uncomfortable and couldn’t eat, he came back to the MRI and was in the end stage, just like the disease in Chinese medicine, completely lost the chance of effective treatment. The life that should have been effectively prolonged ended prematurely in this way. I hope readers will learn a profound lesson and not relax for a moment in the fight against cancer.