Development of epidermal growth factor receptor targeted therapy in pancreatic cancer.

The epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) family is a series of important cancer therapeutic targets involved in cancer biology. These genes play an important role in tumor biological characteristics including angiogenesis, cell survival, invasion and glucose metabolism. In recent years, progress has been achieved on the cellular and molecular biological characteristics of EGFR and its role in cancer development based on the study of tumor specimens and experimental animal model. EGFR (HER1/ErbB) is overexpressed in over sixty percent of triple-negative breast cancers and occurs in pancreatic, bladder, lung and head-and-neck cancers. Up to now, EGFR inhibitors have been applied in various types of cancer, such as lung cancer, breast cancer, bladder cancer and head and neck cancers etc., in which the combination of EGFR inhibitors plus chemotherapeutic agents is now seen as the standard of cure for advanced/metastatic pancreatic cancer. For these reasons, EGFR inhibitors and their therapeutic effect for pancreatic cancer is becoming the focus in laboratory and clinical research. In this paper, research progress of the development of epidermal growth factor receptor targeted therapy in pancreatic cancer is introduced.