The incidence of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has increased worldwide over the past two decades. Surgical resection and liver transplantation have been demonstrated as potentially curative treatment options, which could be considered in 30% -40% of HCC patients. Recent advancements of surgical treatment have focused not only on the surgical techpiques, but also the hepatic functional reserve evaluation, resectability assessment and the effects of biological characteristics of tumor on prognosis. There is no single variable to evaluate the hepatic functional reserve accurately. Combined Child-Pugh classification, ICGI5, portal vein pressure detection and remanent liver volume measurement are required prior to liver resection. The 5-year survival rate after liver resection for HCC is about 50%. The results are acceptable for some selected patients that underwent tumor resection with thrombectomy, including HCC with portal vein tumor thrombus or bile duct thrombosis. The choice of local resection or regular hepatectomy is still controversial although the former is commonly performed to treat HCC with cirrhosis, and the latter is applied to HCC patients without liver cirrhosis. The results of liver transplanta-tion for HCC are better than liver resection, and the Milan criteria is generally accepted. Any attempts to expand the selection criteria should be cautious because of organ shortage. Salvage transplantation for intrabepatic recurrence after liver resection may be a good choice in some resectable HCC. The recurrence and metastasis after surgical treatment are the main obstacles to achieve better results. Identification of predictive factors could be helpful to develop prevention strategies. Due to the importance of biological characteristics in tumor recurrence and metastasis, a molecular classification to predict prognosis of HCC patients will lead to a more personalized medicine. Targeting key molecules of biological pathways could optimize the therapeutic modality in HCC.