VEGFA and hepatocellular carcinoma: Apatinib is a specific inhibitor of VEGF-receptor 2 (VEGFR2) (Tian et al., 2011) and a recent study showed that apatinib blocked the VEGF and PI3K/AKT signaling pathways to inhibit the migration, invasion and angiogenesis of HCC cells (Song et al., 2021).