At present, the main indicators for determining tumor recurrence are tumor size and clinical symptoms, and the commonly used detection methods include conventional methods such as imaging and pathology, but these methods have shortcomings such as lagging, unable to monitor in real time, invasive, and relatively low specificity. The detection of circulating tumor cells to determine the efficacy, recurrence monitoring and prognosis has the advantages of simple operation, real-time, non-invasive and flexible, which is the hot spot of current research. Circulating tumor cells (CTC) are tumor cells released into the peripheral blood circulation from solid tumors or metastatic foci, either spontaneously or as a result of diagnostic and therapeutic operations. It was first discovered by Asthworth in 1869, and is a recognized indicator for detecting tumor bloodstream metastasis, which is beneficial for tumor metastasis monitoring and prognosis judgment. Some researchers believe that the number of CTCs in the blood of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma is closely related to the progression and prognosis of the patients. Recently, Xu et al. reported that the research group used immunomagnetic beads designed for the asialoglycoprotein receptor to isolate hepatocellular carcinoma CTCs, and found that CTCs could not be detected in the blood of healthy volunteers, patients with benign liver disease or non-hepatocellular carcinoma patients; whereas, CTCs were detected in 69 out of 85 patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (81% positive rate). Giovanna Vona et al. showed that CTCs detected in the peripheral blood of patients with primary non-metastatic hepatocellular carcinoma were associated with the spread of tumors, as shown by the separation of CTCs by tumor cell size. CTC significantly correlated with tumor spread and portal vein thrombosis. At the same time, the number of CTC and circulating microemboli was significantly correlated with the survival of patients, suggesting that peripheral blood CTC is clinically important for cancer grading and prognosis judgment. In addition, in the study of anti-tumor metastatic drugs, the anti-metastatic effect of the drug can be judged by observing the changes in the number of CTC in the blood after the drug is administered, without having to spend time waiting to observe the changes in metastatic lesions, which can greatly shorten the research cycle. As a brand-new technique for predicting the recurrence and metastasis of malignant tumors, CTC detection has advantages that cannot be compared with other detection techniques, and its sensitivity and specificity are higher than those of existing detection techniques. Without invasive operations such as biopsy and puncture or laparoscopic exploration, CTC can be detected by drawing 5 ml of peripheral venous blood from the patient without fasting; if the number of CTC can be detected dynamically before and after surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy, it will be more clinically significant for judging the prognosis of patients and predicting the disease-free survival and overall survival period.