The potential for immunotherapy to reduce the high mortality of HCC has been exemplified by the response to the combination of anti-programmed death ligand-1 (PD-L1) and anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), which has now become standard-of-care in advanced disease; however, this combination still only achieves responses in around one third of patients3,4, underscoring the urgent need for additional immunotherapeutic approaches that can deliver more consistent and sustained responses. Here, VEGFA is linked to hepatocellular carcinoma.