Only 10% to 20% of the patients with a primary or secondary liver tumor are candidates for partial liver resection. For the remaining majority of patients only palliative methods are applicable: Systemic and regional chemotherapy, chemoembolisation, endoscopic and percutaneous drainage, and methods still in experimental evaluation. However the number of these many different methods indicates that ‘The one method’ still has not yet been determined. Until now no benefit of one therapy compared to another or to the natural course of the disease has been demonstrated. Only trends can be concluded from the different studies. Therefore we think that the palliative therapy of liver tumors should be restricted to centers which attend prospective, randomized studies to solve this prob