Among the 165 cases of late-stage liver cancer treated in our hospital, 65 (39.4%) died, with an average survival time of 8.1 months and a median survival time of 7 months. Among the 65 dead patients, 45 were treated with traditional Chinese drugs and 20 with western medicine. The average survival time was 8.4 months in the former and 7.3 months in the latter group. The direct causes of death for the 65 patients were hepatic coma, severe hemorrhage of the upper digestive tract, Heyd's syndrome, hepatorrhexis, respiratory failure, cardiac failure, etc. The incidence rates of hemorrhage of the upper digestive tract and hepatorrhexis in the 45 patients treated with traditional Chinese drugs were obviously lower than those treated with western medicine.