In ‘immune desert’ tumors and their draining lymph nodes, tumor-derived immunosuppressive factors (such as VEGF and TGFβ) may suppress the recruitment, maturation, and antigen processing and presentation capacities of DCs, which reduces the priming of tumor-reactive CD8+ T cells (Joyce and Fearon, 2015; Wang et al, 2023). The gene discussed is VEGFA; the disease is neoplasm.