Loco-regional therapy, which uses imaging technologies to facilitate targeted delivery of therapeutic agents to cancers, has emerged as the most commonly used non-surgical treatment for primary liver cancer.Since the theory of loco-regional therapy was introduced, various strategies have been developed and successfully applied in clinic, including interventional radiology methods (mainly transarterial chemoembolization) and local ablative methods (such as intratumoral ethanol injection, radiofrequency ablation, microwave coagulation, laser-induced thermal therapy, high-intensity focused ultrasound, and cryotherapy) .TACE has been widely applied to treat inoperable liver cancers at intermediate and advanced stages, while the local ablative therapies have proven more suitable for small (<5 cm) liver cancers.However, choosing the appropriate loco-regional therapy strategy should be carried out on an individual basis, considering the patient's particular disease condition and characteristics.To help guide such treatment decisions, this review highlights the principal indications, theory, techniques, and reported efficacies of the various loco-regional therapy strategies.