EGFR role in cancer: A potential therapeutic target

Protein kinases play a vital role in the regulation of pathways that control cell growth, proliferation, survival, and differentiation. Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) is a key protein kinase that when dysregulated, disrupts these pathways and, accordingly, is associated with several cancers. Thus, EGFR has been a focus of investigation as a therapeutic target for cancer treatment for the past several decades, with fair success. Despite this success, EGFR-targeted therapies are not universally effective across cancers, and improving the specificity and efficiency of EGFR-targeted therapies is an area of continued investigation. This chapter discusses recent progress made in understanding the role of EGFR in cancer and how the knowledge have been used to develop more precise EGFR-based therapeutic regimens for cancer patients.