According to randomized controlled trial requirement, the therapeutic effectiveness of cooled-probe microwave ablation and radiofrequency ablation on early-stage hepatocellular carcinoma is compared to find a better approach for minimally invasive thermal ablation.

According to following enrollment standard, about >400 cases of biopsy-proved hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC) patients will be involved in the study. They will be treated with percutaneously microwave ablation (MWA) and radiofrequency ablation(RFA). The indications of patients enrolled in the study were as follows: tumor size ≤5cm in diameter, tumor number ≤3, Child-Pugh class A or B classification, no evidence of extrahepatic metastasis, vein or bile duct tumor embolus, and no any other anti-cancer treatment was accepted. MWA or RFA is selected for the patient according to the sequence of their visit to the hospital based on randomization number arrangement produced by SPSS 16.0 statistical software. The therapeutic effectiveness will be compared between two modalities.

Inclusion Criteria:

• tumor size ≤5cm in diameter,
• tumor number ≤3,
• Child-Pugh class A or B classification,
• no evidence of extrahepatic metastasis,
• vein or bile duct tumor embolus, and
• no any other anti-cancer treatment

Exclusion Criteria:

• not meeting the inclusion criteria