TLR7 and hepatocellular carcinoma: To overcome these problems, we conducted a phase I/II clinical study using DC vaccine prepared as follows: i) TAA-pulsed mature DCs were used together with topical application of toll-like receptor (TLR)-7 agonist; ii) recombinant proteins, instead of epitope peptides, were used as a source of TAA to overcome the restriction of HLA type; iii) 3 different HCC antigens were used to cover the broad spectrum of HCC heterogeneity; iv) for efficient delivery of antigens into the cytoplasm of DC, cytoplasmic transduction protein (CTP)-mediated transduction system (21) was used.