Chronic viral hepatitis and cirrhosis are eventually prone to develop into primary liver cancer, and surgery used to be the only treatment means. In recent years, with the development of multidisciplinary technology, ablation therapy has become one of the important choices in the treatment of liver cancer. For early stage and isolated liver cancer, especially if the patient is in good physical condition, surgery is still the preferred means; for certain patients who are not physically able to withstand surgery or whose tumors are more difficult to operate, ablation therapy should be considered. Ablation therapy is a non-vascular minimally invasive treatment, which is applied to the tumor through chemical or thermal energy to eradicate or substantially destroy the tumor, and for some liver cancers, the treatment effect is equivalent to surgical resection and liver transplantation. The more common clinical applications are radiofrequency ablation and microwave ablation. This method is suitable for single tumor with maximum diameter ≤ 5cm, multiple tumors with maximum diameter ≤ 3cm; no invasion of blood vessels, bile ducts and adjacent organs and distant metastasis; liver function reaches the standard of tolerable treatment; for single tumor with diameter > 5cm or multiple tumors with maximum diameter > 3cm that cannot be removed surgically, local ablation can be used as part of palliative treatment; for recurrence of hepatocellular carcinoma resection, or liver function that is not suitable for surgery, or tumor location that is difficult to be removed. For recurrence of hepatocellular carcinoma, or liver function not suitable for surgery, or special tumor site difficult to be resected, ablation therapy is applicable. For patients with diffuse lesions, combined extrahepatic vascular or bile duct cancer emboli, tumor invasion of cavity organs, poor liver function, uncorrectable coagulation dysfunction, poor physical assessment, pregnant patients, in acute infection or vital organ failure are not suitable for ablation therapy. This method is characterized by low pain, low cost, few side effects, high safety, short hospital stay and reliable efficacy. Therefore, ablation therapy is a new trend in the treatment of liver cancer.