 Considering the above data, treatment with a progesterone analogue prior to hysterectomy can be viewed as either a maintenance therapy or a temporizing measure, with the primary goal of preventing disease progression in those awaiting surgery rather than curative intent. This potential application of progesterone analogues may be particularly relevant in settings where women can expect a long wait time prior to definitive surgical management. There is empiric basis for this usage of DMPA, as one particularly intriguing study found that in vivo injection of MPA elevated the expression of a known metastasis suppressor gene in a murine breast cancer model. 