Hepatocellular carcinoma is difficult to treat because, firstly, it is not easy to detect, and many of them are found to be late, so the treatment effect is not good; secondly, even after surgical resection or liver transplantation, there is still a high chance of recurrence, so it will affect patients’ survival. However, we found that some of the patients relapsed 3, 5 or even 10 years or more after surgical resection and still survived for a long time after reoperation or other radical treatments. This makes us think, what is the reason for this? Are the recurrences all the same? The development of medical science has revealed one important reason: the difference between recurrence and reoccurrence. Generally speaking, if there is residual tumor (which cannot be detected) after the first tumor removal, it will recur within two years after surgery, and the new tumor has affinity with the previous tumor, the liver cancer in this case can easily spread and metastasize, and the relative survival time is less desirable; if there is no residual tumor, it is completely new growth and has no affinity with the previous tumor, it is called recurrence. It usually occurs 2 years after surgery, or even longer. These tumors are less likely to invade blood vessels, spread or metastasize. As long as the tumor is actively treated after discovery, good results will be achieved, and many patients can survive for a long time.