Role of chemotherapy in cancer of Liver is usually palliative (Symptom relief). Chemotherapy is usually administered if the tumor is not amenable to surgery or has spread extensively.

Chemotherapy for liver cancer is usually put into the body by inserting a needle into a vein or artery. This type of chemotherapy is called a systemic treatment because the drug enters the bloodstream, travels through the body, and can kill cancer cells outside the liver. In another type of chemotherapy called regional chemotherapy, a small pump containing drugs is placed in the body. The pump puts drugs directly into the blood vessels that go to the tumor.

Chemoembolization of the hepatic artery involves blocking the hepatic artery (the major artery that supplies blood to the liver) and then injecting chemotherapy drugs between the blockage and the liver, using the liver's arteries to deliver the chemotherapy throughout the liver.

If a doctor removes all the cancer that can be seen at the time of the operation, the patient may be given chemotherapy after surgery to kill any remaining cells. Chemotherapy that is given after surgery to remove the cancer is called adjuvant chemotherapy.

Hyperthermia (warming the body to kill cancer cells) and biological therapy (using the body's immune system to fight cancer) are being tested in clinical trials.

Hyperthermia therapy is the use of a special machine to heat the body for a certain period of time to kill cancer cells. Because cancer cells are often more sensitive to heat than normal cells, the cancer cells die and the tumor shrinks.

Biological therapy uses the body's immune system to fight cancer. Materials made by the body or made in a laboratory are used to boost, direct, or restore the body's natural defenses against disease. Biological therapy is sometimes called biological response modifier therapy or immunotherapy.

Recently a selective cancer drug Sorafenib has been approved for use in cases of liver cancer.