Epidermal growth factor receptors: status and effect on breast cancer patients

The predictive potential of Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR) is still a matter of debate. EGFR was quantified biochemically using an enzyme immunoassays malignant and normal tissues from the same breast (n = 94) as well as benign mastopathies (n = 40). The mean level of EGFR in malignant tissues showed a significant decrease from the control and benign ones with a weak positive correlation existing between EGFR level in malignant and control tissue of the same breast. Statistically, no cut-off line could be drawn between malignant and non malignant tumors due to the large overlap in their values. On the contrary to reports on EGFR, when the patients were classified according to the relative changes in EGFR from malignant and adjacent tissue, patients with a relative EGFR decrease (negative EGFR) in malignant tissue showed the poorer prognosis in short term follow up. Mean EGFR values in malignant or normal tissue, or the difference between them, did not show any significant correlation with the age of the patients, menstrual status, clinical stage, type and grade of the carcinoma and lymph node involvement. The present work showed also an inverse correlation between EGFR and Estrogen Receptor (ER) level in the malignant tissues.