The use of circulating blood counts as markers for clinical outcomes during anti-angiogenic therapy has been demonstrated by some groups, such as by Zhu et al.,29 who showed an association between changes in platelet counts and changes in circulating VEGF-C and soluble VEGFR3 in hepatocellular carcinoma patients treated with the anti-VEGF tyrosine kinase inhibitor sunitinib. This evidence concerns the gene FLT4 and hepatocellular carcinoma.