Abstract: Liver resection is widely accepted as firstline treatment for patient with liver cancer. Most patients with liver cancer have varied degrees of liver cirrhosis, which is an important risk factor adversely affect the outcomes of liver resection. The adverse effects are more significant as the increase of degree of liver cirrhosis. At present, it is generally believed that liver resection of 60% volume is appropriate for patients with liver cirrhosis when liver function is within Child A. However, surgeons usually assess whether a patient has liver cirrhosis using “Yes” or “No”, ignoring the pathological severity of liver cirrhosis. How to determine the extent of liver resection for patients combined with liver cirrhosis is still controversial. The authors have proposed a method for evaluating the degree of cirrhosis before and during surgery. It is believed that the extent of liver resection should be appropriately reduced with the increase of degree of liver cirrhosis. Further studies are needed to investigate how to accurately assess the severity of liver cirrhosis and how to scientifically determine the extent of liver resection before operation.