Efficacy of epidermal growth factor receptor-targeted molecular therapy in anaplastic thyroid cancer cell lines

Anaplastic thyroid cancer is one of the most aggressive human malignancies and the outcomes of conventional therapy have been far from satisfactory. Recently, epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)-targeted therapy has been introduced as an alternative therapeutic strategy for highly malignant cancers. This study was undertaken to investigate the expression of EGFR in anaplastic thyroid cancer cell lines, and to explore the potential of therapies targeting EGFR as a new therapeutic approach. EGFR was universally expressed in anaplastic cancer cell lines at a variety of levels. Specific EGFR stimulation with epidermal growth factor showed significant phosphorylation of ERK1/2 and Akt, and resulted in marked growth stimulation in an anaplastic thyroid cancer cell line, which highly expressed EGFR. This EGFR-transmitted proliferation effect of the cancer cell line was completely inhibited by gefitinib, an EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor. Moreover, growth of xenografts inoculated in mice was inhibited in a dose-dependent manner with 25–50 mg kg(−1) of gefitinib administrated orally. Inhibition of EGFR-transmitted growth stimulation by gefitinib was clearly observed in anaplastic thyroid cancer cell lines. Our results suggested that EGFR-targeted therapy, such as gefitinib, might be worth further investigation for the treatment of anaplastic thyroid cancer.