Objective:To study combined adjuvant transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE) with anti-tumor drug treatment on early hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) recurrence in patients with microvascular invasion (MVI) after partial hepatectomy with curative intent.Methods:The clinical and pathological data of 169 patients with HCC who underwent partial hepatectomy with curative intent from January 2015 to December 2018 at the Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University were retrospectively analyzed. MVI was diagnosed by postoperative histopathology. There were 147 males and 22 females, with the median age 56 years(ranged 32-79 years). The patients were divided into surgery group ( n=62, patients who did not receive adjuvant therapy), TACE group ( n=42, patients who only received TACE) and combined group ( n=65, patients who received TACE with anti-tumor drug) according to the therapies after resection. Patients in each group were further divided into grade M1 (mild) and grade M2 (severe) subgroups according to the severity of MVI. All patients were followed-up for observing tumor recurrence. The relapse-free survival in the three groups were compared using the Kaplan-Meier method and the log-rank test was used to compare the tumor-free survival rates. Results:The tumor-free survival rates of 169 patients at 1 and 2 years after operation were 59.2% and 40.8%. The tumor-free survival rates at 1 and 2 years after operation were 45.2% and 25.8% in surgery group, 61.9% and 40.5% in TACE group, 70.8% and 52.3% in combined group respectively. The differences among the three groups were significant: TACE group was better than surgery group, and combined group was better than TACE group, combined group was better than surgery group (all P<0.05). In TACE group and combined group, tumor-free survival rates of M1patients better than M2 patients, and the difference was significant ( P<0.05). Among M1 patients and M2 patients, tumor-free survival rates of combined group patients were better than surgery group and TACE group, the difference was significant (all P<0.05). The cumulative tumor-free survival rate was not significantly affected by different antineoplastic agents. Conclusion:Adjuvant TACE reduced the early recurrence rate of HCC patients with MVI. Adjuvant TACE combined with anti-tumor drug further reduced early tumor recurrence.