Purpose : To obtain the useful information about tumor behavior of hepatocellular carcinoma by analizing therecurrence pattern after curative resection. Materials and methods : Forty-two patients who underwent curativeresection of hepatocellular carcinoma were analized. Based on the firstly detected radiologic recurrence, weclassified recurrence patterns into three types, type I;marginal recurrence, type II;intrahepaticnodular(multiple, single) and type III; extrahepatic. We also analized its duration of recurrence after curativeresection. Results : Eighteen patients showed no radiologic recurrence during follow-up period(mean 19.2 months).Twenty-four patients showed radiologic recurrence at 29 sites and its mean duration was 11.0 months. Recurrencepattern were seven cases in type I, 14 cases in type II(multiple 11, single three), eight cases in type IIIincluding two omental, two extrahepatic lymph node, two brain, one spine, and one intracranial metastasis. Amongthe extrahepatic recurrence, five cases showed only distant metastasis without hepatic recurrence. Mean durationof recurrence according to the site was 16.0 months in type I, 12.6 months in type II, 12.3 months in type III.Among 20 patients with single site recurrence, type II (9.0 months) was earlier than type I(10.3 months).Conclusion : Intrahepatic recurrence is more common than extrahepatic recurrence. Intrahepatic nodular, especiallymultinodular recurrence, is more common than marginal recurrence. Intrahepatic recurrence has tendency to developeearlier metastain earlier than marginal recurrence.