Short-term EGFR blockade enhances immune-mediated cytotoxicity of EGFR mutant lung cancer cells: rationale for combination therapies.

ABSTRACT: The epidermal growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor (EGFR-TKI) erlotinib has been approved for years as a first-line therapy for patients harboring EGFR-sensitizing mutations. With the promising implementation of immunotherapeutic strategies for the treatment of lung cancer, there is a growing interest in developing combinatorial therapies that could utilize immune approaches in the context of conventional or targeted therapies. Tumor cells are known to evade immune attack by multiple strategies, including undergoing phenotypic plasticity via a process designated as the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT). As signaling through EGFR is a major inducer of EMT in epithelial cells, we have investigated the effect of EGFR inhibition with erlotinib on tumor phenotype and susceptib

SUBMITTER: Dominguez C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5059888 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature