Hepatocellular carcinoma mainly develops in a cirrhotic liver; in the majority of the patients chronic hepatitis or cirrhosis are virus-related and/or postalcoholic. Liver resection is the gold standard treatment when there is no multifocality of the tumor and liver disease is not advanced (patients with Child-Pugh A score, or B in selected cases). In our experience the presence of vascular invasion and satellite nodules is clearly related to a decreased rate of disease-free survival and a higher percentage of intrahepatic recurrence.