In our study “co-option of liver vessels and not sprouting angiogenesis drives acquired sorafenib resistance in hepatocellular carcinoma” recently published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute [5], we proposed a new explanation for why the anti-tumor effects of sorafenib on HCC may be short-lived and why alternate anti-VEGF agents, especially as second-line therapies, are not helping (Fig. 1). Here, VEGFA is linked to hepatocellular carcinoma.