Table 1.

In vitro, in vivo, and clinical effects of progesterone and its related compounds in HCC.

Progestin	Bioeffect and physical response	Reference
Progesterone	Activation of Src and downstream MAPK induced Elk-1. Transactivation that was nearly as efficient as Elk-1 activation by EGF increase in the % of cells in G2M+ S phase	[31]
MA	Significant decreased tumor growth and improved survival in treated patients than the placebo group	[32]
	Inhibition of the growth of HepG2 in dose- and time-dependent manner, and HepG2 transplanted tumor in vivo	[33]
	HCC patients who received MA treatment would have longer median survival (18 months) compared to untreated patients (7 months)	[34]
	MA improves HCC patients' appetite, bodyweight, and a feeling of well-being with minimal side effects. And a minor reduction of tumour size and a prolonged survival	[35]
	Efficiency of MA treatment can be determined by expression of variant ER in HCC, but MA shows only a temporary inhibition of tumor growth	[27]
	MA has no role in prolonging OS in advanced treatment-naive HCC	[36]
MPA	Increased migration and invasion	[37]
	No significant curative effects were observed in MPA-treated HCC rat	[38]
	Expression level of leptin predicts postoperative treatment efficiency of MPA in HCC patients	[39]
	Tamoxifen- and MPA-combined chemotherapy may not prolong the survival of patients with HCC, although it improves their quality of life	[40]