ObjectiveTo study the efficacy of adjuvant percutaneous transhepatic portal vein chemoembolization (PVCE) in the prevention of tumor recurrence after partial hepatectomy for hepatocellular carcinoma.MethodsThe clinical data of 89 patients who received liver resection for hepatocellular carcinoma in our hospital from January 2007 to January 2010 were studied retrospectively.41patients received PVCE (the treatment group) while 48 patients received no PVCE (the control group).Postoperative recurrence and cumulative disease free survivals were compared using the Kaplan-Meier method.ResultsOn follow-up which ranged from 6-42 months,the 1- and 2-year disease free survivals were 76.5％ and 48.0％ in the treatment group,and 53.8％ and 25.8％ respectively in the control group (P＜0.05).The mean disease free survivals were 19.91 (95％ CI,16.09-23.73)and 13.8 months (95 ％ CI,10.95-16.65),respectively.The cumulative disease free survivals in the PVCE group were significantly higher than the control group (P=0.01).Cox multivariate analysis showed that adjuvant PVCE,tumor size,portal vein thrombosis,and postoperative transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE) were independent factors of disease free survival.ConclusionAdjuvant PVCE was effective in preventing postoperative recurrence of hepatocellular carcinoma after partial hepatectomy.