Assuming your friend is not eligible for surgical resection or liver transplant, s/he may still be (if there are no extrahepatic metastases), a candidate for liver-directed therapy (such as TACE) that shrinks the tumor*. Unfortunately, systemic therapy will probably be needed anyway and Nexavar (400mg bid or qd depending on tolerability) would be the drug of choice (again if liver function is no worse than Child Pugh A,B7-8).
There are number of targeted therapies in late-stage clinical trials for HCC and many in earlier stage, I will add about those later if you wish.
* Docs here use Nexavar in conjunction with local therapy and even earlier if the patient can afford it.