OBJECTIVES: Liver cancer is a leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer (BCLC) staging, which is based on tumour status, liver function and health status, can be used to determine treatment allocation to optimise clinical outcomes. This study aims to describe the patient characteristics and clinical outcomes of Malaysian patients with liver cancer treated in a tertiary-care hospital in Kuala Lumpur. METHODS: Data from the medical records of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma liver cancer from 2007 to 2012 were collected in a retrospective study. Date of death was obtained from the National Registration Department in April 2014. Overall survival is defined as survival time from date of diagnosis until the end of life. RESULTS: There were 208 patients (male: n=158, 76%) who met the inclusion criteria (mean age 64 years, SD: 12, range: 23-92). The ethnic distributions were Chinese (n=144, 69%), Malay (n=42, 20%) and Indian (n=22, 11%). Stages of liver cancer at diagnosis based on BCLC staging were: Stage A (n=57, 27%), Stage B (n=33, 16%), Stage C (n=89, 43%) and Stage D (n=29, 14%). The main active treatments received were: radiofrequency ablation (RFA) (n=75, 36%), transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) (n=71, 34%) and liver resection (n=33, 16%). At the time of analysis, 173 patients (83%) were deceased, while the rest had censored data (n=35, 17%). Median survivals for patients who received the following active treatment were: liver resection (71 months), RFA (35 months) and TACE (15 months). The median survivals of patients on sorafenib (10 months) and palliative care (4 months) reflected the place of these treatment modalities within current practice. CONCLUSIONS: This study has described the patient characteristics and clinical outcomes of patients with liver cancer in Malaysia. The findings suggest that treatment outcomes in the local setting are similar to results from other studies.