**5. Future prospect of liver cancer treatment by Chinese medicines and their active compounds**

CMs and its active compounds have a long history for anticancer treatment in China. In recent decades, many TCM formulae, herbal extracts or isolates have been developed to treat liver cancer, especially for patients with advanced‐stage liver cancer. According to both clinical studies and basic researches, CMs have less toxicity and exhibit multitarget anticancer activity. In China, the antihepatoma effects of several TCM products have been verified by clinical trials, such as the Songyou Yin and Kanglaite injection. Many studies have proven that CMs had beneficial effects in relieving fatigue and pain, preventing respiratory tract infections and alleviating gastrointestinal symptoms in liver cancer patients.

However, there are also some problems with CMs in current cancer treatment that should be considered seriously. First of all, most of the CMs are extracted from plants or animals, their pharmacological active components are still unknown CMs. Second, the adverse effects, contraindications and corresponding clinical data of CMs are rarely indicated by TCM doctors or CMs manufacturers. Third, the frequent occurrence of fatal accidents such as allergy and phlebitis has been observed during TCM treatment especially in TCM injection treatment. Finally, although there are many clinical trials on CMs for liver cancer treatment, none of them were large multicenter trials with strict and standard criteria CMs. In this case, it is difficult to give an accurate conclusion about the effects of CMs for liver cancer treatment when conduct‐ ing a meta‐analysis. Therefore, large‐scale multicenter clinical trials with strict and standard criteria are urgently needed for the development of TCM in liver cancer treatment. According to the previous studies, combination of CMs and its active compounds with surgery, TACE or chemotherapy may protect liver function, enhance the patients' immune response, and reduce the side effects and complications of conventional therapy as well as prolong lifespan. With the rapid development of modern scientific research, the combination therapy with TCM will be definitely promising for future liver cancer treatment.
