Review question / Objective: Clinical efficacy of Laparoscopic liver resection versus radiofrequency ablation for smell hepatocellular carcinoma. Condition being studied: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the fifth-most common cancer in the worldwide and due to its highly malignant nature, it has become the second leading cause of cancer death. There are several treatment available for the HCC, such as liver transplantation, hepatic resection, ablative therapies , transcatheter hepatic arterial

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... chemoembolization (TACE) and molecular-targeted drugs in Internal Medicine. For the HCC within the Milan criteria, liver transplantation remains the recommended treatment of choice. Due to the suitable donors of liver transplantation are rare and liver transplantation requires high cost and waiting period, the application of liver transplantation is limited. Liver resection and radiofrequency ablation (RFA) should remain the first options for curative treatment of HCC. Especially in the treatment of small liver cancer, laparoscopic liver resection (LLR) not only has the advantages of quick recovery and less blood loss from minimally invasive surgery, but also can remove part of normal liver tissue which can reduce the impact of tumor microvascular infiltration. However, the existing research which comparing LLR and RFA in the treatment of small hepatocellular carcinoma have produced conflicting results. INPLASY registration number: This protocol was registered with the International Platform of Registered Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Protocols (INPLASY) on 14 June 2020 and was last u p d a t e d o n 1 4 J u n e 2 0 2 0 ( r e g i s t r a t i o n n u m b e r INPLASY202060051).