Hydrogen sulfide (H2S), as one of the three known gaseous signal transduction molecules in organisms, has attracted a surging amount of attention. H2S is involved in a variety of physiological and pathological processes in the body, such as dilating blood vessels (regulating blood pressure), protecting tissue from ischemia-reperfusion injury, anti-inflammation, carcinogenesis, or inhibition of cancer, as well as acting on the hypothalamus and pancreas to regulate hormonal metabolism. The change of H2S concentration is related to a variety of endocrine disorders, and the change of hormone concentration also affects the synthesis of H2S. Understanding the effect of biosynthesis and the concentration of H2S on the endocrine system is useful to develop drugs for the treatment of hypertension, diabetes, and other diseases.

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Hydrogen sulphide (H2S) is a gaseous neurotransmitter that can be self‐synthesized by living organisms. With the deepening of research, the pathophysiological mechanisms of endogenous H2S in cancer have been increasingly elucidated: (1) promote angiogenesis, (2) stimulate cell bioenergetics, (3) promote migration and proliferation thereby invasion, (4) inhibit apoptosis and (5) activate abnormal cell cycle. However, the increasing H2S levels via exogenous sources show the opposite trend. This phenomenon can be explained by the bell‐shaped pharmacological model of H2S, that is, the production of endogenous (low concentration) H2S promotes tumour growth while the exogenous (high concentration) H2S inhibits tumour growth. Here, we review the impact of endogenous H2S synthesis and metabolism on tumour progression, summarize the mechanism of action of H2S in tumour growth, and discuss the possibility of H2S as a potential target for tumour treatment.