Exon 4-Deletion Variant of Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor Enhances Invasiveness and Cisplatin Resistance in Epithelial Ovarian Cancer

Abstract

Recently, de4 EGFR, a variant of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) with exon 4 deletion was identified in glioblastoma and ovarian cancer. However, its biological function on ovarian cancer is still not clear. In this study, the expression profile of de4 EGFR and its contribution to epithelial ovarian cancer cells proliferation, invasiveness and drug resistance were studied. Our results showed that 48.6% (35/72) of epithelial ovarian cancer tissues had de4 EGFR expression and the expression ratio positively correlated with clinical stages............. Collectively, these results demonstrate that de4 EGFR plays an important role in the invasiveness and cisplatin resistance in epithelial ovarian cancer cells, and may provide a new potential therapeutic target for epithelial ovarian cancer.