Abstract: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common malignancies worldwide, with high morbidity and mortality and poor prognosis. The main reason for poor prognosis are difficulties in early diagnosis, common recurrence and metastasis after surgery. Therefore, early diagnosis and postoperative monitoring of HCC are particularly important to improve the overall prognosis of HCC patients. Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are malignant tumor cells in blood circulation, which play an important role in tumor invasion and metastasis. As a "liquid biopsy" technique, CTC test can be performed in real-time and allows repeated monitoring of tumor cells in peripheral blood, which has great clinical application value in early tumor diagnosis, postoperative dynamic monitoring, and prognosis evaluation. In this article, the research progress of CTCs at home and abroad was retrospectively illustrated, and their detection methods, research, and clinical applications for diagnosis, prognosis, and other aspects of HCC patients were systematically reviewed.