China is a large country with hepatitis B. According to the Ministry of Health, there are about 96 million hepatitis B carriers, and about 300,000-500,000 people also have hepatitis B-related liver cancer each year. Liver transplantation is an important treatment for primary liver cancer, and the 5-year survival rate can reach 80% for patients with liver cancer who meet the Milan criteria. However, due to organ shortage and recurrence of liver cancer after liver transplantation, many patients’ liver cancer progresses to the point where liver transplantation is not possible while waiting for liver transplantation, which becomes a serious challenge for patients and doctors. How long can liver cancer patients wait for liver transplantation to achieve the best treatment outcome and the lowest recurrence rate of liver cancer? Recently, at the 66th Annual Meeting of the American Association of Liver Diseases in the United States, scholars from the University of California, San Francisco, suggested that liver transplantation from 6 months to 18 months after definitive diagnosis of liver cancer would result in the best prognosis. They conducted a multicenter study in which a total of 911 patients who met the Milan criteria were enrolled. 93.5% of these patients underwent at least one local treatment, 32.4% waited less than 6 months, 53.7% waited 6-18 months and 13.9% waited longer than 18 months, and finally 81.2% of the patients underwent liver transplantation. The average follow-up time after liver transplantation was 4.2 years, with 1- and 5-year survival rates of 92.8 and 77.4%. The recurrence rates were 6.4% and 15.5% at 1 and 5 years for liver cancers with a waiting time of less than 6 months and more than 18 months, respectively, and 4.5% and 9.8% at 1 and 5 years for liver cancers with a waiting time of more than 6 months and less than 18 months. Therefore, patients with liver cancer who meet the Milan criteria may be able to obtain a lower recurrence rate of liver cancer by waiting 6-18 months for liver transplantation after local treatment during the waiting time for liver transplantation.