HGF and cancer: Paracrine production of growth factors and cytokines, including hepatocyte growth factor (HGF), insulin‐like growth factor (IGF), and stromal‐derived factor (SDF‐1/CXCL12) support a protumourigenic, chemotherapy‐resistant and immune‐suppressive environment in a variety of cancers [6, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16].