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OBJECTIVE To assess the necessity of prophylactic antibiotic therapy in HCC patients undergoing transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE). STUDY DESIGN Descriptive study. PLACE AND DURATION OF STUDY The First Affliated Hospital, College of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China, from August 2016 to August 2017. METHODOLOGY Retrospective TACE-treated cases were analysed in this study. The basic characteristics of the patients,the days in hospital, the laboratory data and fever after the procedure were assessed and compared. A review of literature of published studies and our present study were further conducted to determine the necessity of prophylactic antibiotic therapy. RESULTS In 159 cases, there were no significant difference in the leukocyte count (p=0.552), neutrophil count (p=0.573) and fever (p=0.31) with and without prophylactic antibiotic therapy groups. The hospital stay was significantly increased in the prophylactic antibiotic group (p<0.001). The fever of previous and the present results showed no significant difference (p=0.25) between the groups. CONCLUSION Prophylactic antibiotic therapy is not routinely necessary in the procedure of TACE for HCC patients.