Effect of the molecular targeted drug, erlotinib, against endometrial cancer expressing high levels of epidermal growth factor receptor

Background The epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitor, erlotinib, has been clinically applied for the treatment of a variety of tumors with EGFR overexpression. A phase II clinical study of erlotinib (NCIC IND-148) for recurrent or metastatic endometrial carcinoma (EC) resulted in an unfavorable result. However, in that study, the expression levels of EGFR were not accurately analyzed. Thus, the aim of this study was to re-examine the efficacy of erlotinib in EC cells by utilizing in vitro and in vivo models.