Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the 5th most common cancer worldwide and the third most frequent cause of death of cancer. However, the management strategies for intermediate-stage HCC remain controversial without global consensus. On one hand, Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer (BCLC) staging system recommends liver resection (LR) for very early and early-stage HCC, and transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) for intermediate-stage HCC. On the other hand, observational studies in both Eastern and Western countries have emerged to suggest that LR was safe and achieved better survival than TACE for patients with intermediate-stage HCC, but only very few studies have been conducted to directly compare LR with TACE for these patients.