HGF and hepatocellular carcinoma: However, in vivo studies on the mechanisms of these markers are lacking We also observed increased expression across all etiologies of cirrhosis in growth factors related to HCC, as well as evasion-associated growth factors, such as HGF, SCGF-BB and SCF, and inflammation-driven mediators, such as pentraxin-3, CCL15, MMP-3 and TRAIL [5,8,17,18,19,20].