High incidence of egf receptor hyperproduction in esophageal squamous‐cell carcinomas

Abstract

EGF receptor levels were investigated in esophageal squamous-cell carcinoma tissues from 31 patients. Twenty-two (71%) of these cancer tissues exhibited significantly higher 125I-EGF binding activity than normal mucosa in the adjacent non-cancerous tissues. These EGF receptor levels were then compared on the basis of pathological findings including lymph-node metastasis, depth of invasion, differentiation type, vascular invasion, infiltration and location of the lesion. Unlike previous reports on breast and bladder cancers, our study showed no obvious correlation between these pathological characteristics and the EGF receptor levels in esophageal carcinomas. Immunohistochemical staining with the anti-EGF receptor monoclonal antibody detected EGF receptors in squamous cells of the cancer tissues as well as in the basal cells of nearby normal epithelium. Since the basal cells have proliferative potential in the esophagus, the increase in EGF receptor levels in these cells may possibly be associated with the development of human esophageal squamous-cell cancer.

The anchorage-dependent and -independent growth of a human SCC cell line: the roles of TGF alpha/EGF and TGFβ

“…(Table I). In conformity with other oesophageal SCC cell lines (Ozawa et al, 1987), SNO cells express higher than normal numbers of EGF/TGFx receptors (2.6 x 106 receptors per cell, Kd = 1.4 nM; Veale & Thornley, 1989) and their proliferation in monolayer culture is inhibited by EGF (Figure 1) (Kamata et al, 1986). In these respects, and also because SNO cells are stimulated by EGF in soft agar culture (Figure 2a,b), SNO cells are similar to A431 cells as described by Lee et al (1987 (Wakefield et al, 1987).…”

Epidermal growth factor (EGF) suppresses staurosporine-induced apoptosis by inducing mcl-1 via the mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway

“…Autocrine survival factors may also protect the tumor cells from chemotherapeutic drugs. Secretion of TGF a/EGF and overexpression of EGF receptors were not only reported in human esophageal carcinoma cell lines, but were also detected in human esophageal carcinoma tissues (Lu et al, 1988;Ozawa et al, 1987Ozawa et al, , 1989. In fact, the prognosis is poorer in esophageal cancer patients whose tumors express a higher level of EGF receptors (Iihara et al, 1993;Ozawa et al, 1989).…”

Effect of endogenous and exogenous EGF on the growth of EGF receptor-hyperproducing human squamous cell carcinoma implanted in nude mice

“…Previously, squamous carcinomas of the neck, lung, gingiva and oesophagus were found to express elevated levels of EGF receptors at high frequency (Ozanne et al, 1985;Gullick et al, 1986;Ozawa et al, 1987a). Notably, in oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma, a significant correlation between the EGF receptor overexpression and poor prognosis of the disease has been reported .…”

“…Many transformed cells produce EGF-associated growth factors, such as transforming growth factor alpha (TGF-a) which interacts with EGF receptors, and TGF-P (Sporn and Roberts, 1984). Overexpression of EGF receptor has been shown to occur at a high incidence both in primary squamous cell carcinomas and in established cell lines such as A431 (Ozanne et al, 1985;Gullick et al, 1986;Ozawa et al, 1987a). The v-erbB oncogene of avian erythroblastosis virus originates from part of the host cell EGF receptor gene (Ullrich et al, 1984;Shimizu et al, 1985).…”