Objective To study the significance of treating advanced primary hepatic carcinoma by using the different methods combined with chemotherapy. Methods One hundred and fifteen cases with advanced primary hepatic carcinoma were divided into 5 groups by accepting different chemotherapy: the groups of interventional-chemotherapy (group A, 40 cases), whole body hyperthermia combined with chemotherapy (group B, 16 cases), only chemotherapy (group C, 9 cases), local heat chemotherapy (group D, 26 cases), symptomatic supportive (group E, 24 cases) for comparing response rate (RR) and survival time between each other. Results The RR in group A,B,C were 30.5 % (12/40), 12.5 % (2/16), 11.1 % (1/9) respectively, and there was no significant difference among three groups (P>0.05). The mid-survival time of five groups were 7.7, 9.2, 7.9, 6.0, 4.7 months, and there was significant difference between group B and group E (P<0.05). The 0.5-, 1-, 2-year survival rate in group B were higher than those in group E with significant difference (81.2%vs. 29.1%, 37.5%vs. 12.5%, 12.5%vs. 0, all P<0.05). Conclusions The RR of only routine chemotherapy is low, while the RR of interventional-chemotherapy and local heat chemotherapy is high with non-prolonged survival time. Whole body hyperthermia combined with chemotherapy have active effects in helping to improve the efficacy and prolong the survival time in retreatment patients with advanced hepatic tumor.