HCC is a major worldwide public health problem. In the developing world, HCC has long been considered a priority oncologic problem, and in certain parts of the world, it is the most common solid organ tumor. In recent times, awareness of HCC also has increased in the developed world as a result of markedly rising incidence rates. A greater investigational energy has been focused on optimal management of this disease, and better systemic therapies are emerging. Nevertheless, the main therapeutic modality that can be considered curative is surgical resection. Surgical resection is reliant on the remarkable regenerative powers of normal liver tissue. For Prometheus, strapped to a rock on the Caucasus mountains, a giant eagle returning daily to tear at his newly regenerated liver, this cycle of recovery was a cursed and unending punishment for giving the gift of fire to mortal beings. For modern patients and their physicians, the power of the liver to absorb, regenerate, grow, and function as a critical organ through the range of surgical and radiologic techniques, chemotherapy regimens, and emerging novel therapies, means that the myth of Prometheus has happier connotations as these strategies are integrated to better affect outcome.