Objective:To evaluate the effects of antiviral therapy in prevention of tumor recurrence after curative treatment for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Methods: Between Aug 2003 and Aug 2008, 93 patients undergoing radical liver resection for HCC were enrolled in the retrospective analysis. Patients were assigned to two groups: 43 cases of patients(serum HBV-DNA ≥1.0×105 copies/ml) without lamivudine antiviral therapy after operation and 50 cases of patients(serum HBV-DNA ≥1.0×105 copies/ml) received lamivudine(100 mg/d) antiviral therapy after operation. The Kaplan-Meier method was used to calculate the tumor-free survival rates, Log-rank test was performed to evaluate the difference between two groups. Results: All patients were followed-up, the overall recurrence rate and mortality were 78.49%(73 cases ) and 69.89%(65 cases). The 1,3,5-year recurrence rate was 76.74%, 44.19%, 13.95% in radical liver resection group without antiviral therapy and 88.25%, 69.78%, 28.73% in radical liver resection group received lamividine antiviral therapy(P = 0.014 3). Conclusion: The study suggested that antiviral therapy after radical liver resection in patients with HCC can reduce the tumor recurrence and those patients with HBV-DNA ≥1.0×105 copies/ml should received an antiviral therapy as early as possible after extirpation of the primary tumor.