AIM: To evaluate the value and limitation of postoperative transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE) in preventing recurrence of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). METHODS: In the first group, 987 postoperative patients with HCC, who did not have any evidence of recurrence in the first preventative TACE but were found to have recurrence at different times during the follow-up survey, were analyzed. In the second group, 643 postoperative patients with HCC had no TACE for compared study. To study the relationship between the recurrence time and the number of TACE treatments was analyzed. RESULTS: The 6-, 12-, and 18-mo recurrence rates in the first and second groups were 22.2% (210 cases) vs 61.6% (396 cases), 78.0% (770 cases) vs74.7% (480 cases) and 88.6% (874 cases) vs80.1% (515 cases). There were significant differences between the recurrence rates of the two groups at 6 mo (P＜0.0001).CONCLUSION: The principal role of TACE after HCC operation is to suppress, detect early and treat micrometastasis. It has a good effect of preventing recurrence of HCC in 6 mo, but such an effect is less satisfactory in a longer period. When it is uncertain whether HCC is singlecentral or multi-central and if there is cancer residue or metastasis after operation, TACE is valuable to prevent recurrence.