In this study, we evaluated our early results of liver transplantation for hepatocellular carcinoma. Between January 2003 and June 2006, 26 patients (4 females, 22 males; aged 1.1 to 65 years) with preoperatively diagnosed or incidental HCC underwent liver transplantation at Baskent University Hospital in Ankara, Turkey. Eight of the grafts were from cadaveric donors, and 18 were from living-related donors. Inclusion criteria (independent of tumor size and number of tumor nodules) were no invasion of major vascular structure and no evidence of extrahepatic disease. In 13 of the patients, tumors were beyond the Milan criteria. Two patients had neoadjuvant chemoembolization, 4 had percutaneous ethanol injections, 3 had combined chemoembolization and percutaneous ethanol injections, and 4 had systemic chemotherapy before transplantation. Two patients received postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy. Eleven patients with HBV infection underwent antiviral prophylaxis with anti-HBs antibody and lamivudine. According to the TNM staging system, 9 patients had stage-I carcinoma, 15 had stage II, and 2 had stage III A. Two complications occurred in 26 patients.Hepatic arterial thrombosis occurred in 1, and biliary leakage occurred in 1 patient. Acute rejection episodes occurred in 5 patients. At this writing, with a mean follow-up of 16.5 months (range, 1-31 months), all patients are doing well with excellent graft function. The longest survival is 2.5 years, and our patient survival rate is 100%. There has been no evidence of tumor recurrence during follow-up.In conclusion, liver transplantation provides long patient and disease-free survival, even in patients with HCC that exceeds the Milan criteria.