VEGFA and hepatocellular carcinoma: Hypoxia signaling and immune dysregulation have been implicated, yet their compartment-specific relevance remains unclear.<h4>Methods</h4>This multicenter nested case-control study included 49 HCC patients to evaluate associations between hypoxia-inducible factor-1 alpha (HIF-1α), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), CD4<sup>+</sup> T cells, CD8<sup>+</sup> T cells, regulatory T cells (Tregs), programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1), and programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) and early recurrence after resection.