During the past 5 1/3 years, we have performed 521 hepatic resections, of which 308 cases were hepatocellular carcinomas (HCC). Two hundreds and sixty cases of the 308 HCC patients were studied on their outcomes. These patients included 198 males and 62 females, whose ages ranged from 29 to 84 years. Underlying cirrhosis of the liver was found in 66% of the patients. Hepatectomized patients were classified into 5 groups according to the curability as follows; Group A, the resection of the tumor-bearing segment and additional segment; Group B, the complete resection of the tumor with more than 1.0 cm free surgical margin; Group C, the complete resection of the tumor with less than 1.0 cm free surgical margin; Group D, the incomplete resection of the tumor; Group E, the surgical approach for advanced HCC with tumor thrombi in the main trunk or the 1st branch of the portal vein and/or the inferior vena cava, with multiple daughter nodules in both lobes and with tumor recurrence. The number of patients in Groups A, B, C, D and E was 14 (5.4%), 105 (40.4%), 61 (23.4%), 14 (5.4%) and 66 (25.4%), respectively. There were 5 death (2.6%) among the 194 patients of Group A-D within 30 days after operation and 12 death (18.2%) in Group E. The overall 5-year survival rate of all 249 patients except for 11 surgical death cases was 32%. Whereas, 5-year survival rate for Group A and B were 100% and 47%, 4-year rate for Group C was 44%, respectively.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)