Expression of epidermal growth factor receptor in squamous cell carcinoma of uterine cervix

Context: Cervical cancer is one of the most important cancer deaths among females. Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) plays a role in cell differentiation, cell motility, neovascularization, invasion, metastasis, and resistance of cancer cells to chemotherapeutic agents and radiation. Tyrosine kinase inhibitors and anti-EGFR monoclonal antibodies have shown better response in various invasive tumors. Aims: The aim of the study is to evaluate EGFR expression in squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the cervix and to assess its relation to tumor characteristics. Settings and Design: This was a retrospective, case–control study. Subjects and Methods: Formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissues from 30 cases with SCC along with 20 age-matched cases with normal cervix as controls were obtained from the archives. EGFR expression was analyzed in both cases and controls. Statistical Analysis Used: The Chi-square test was used to compare and find the association between the variables. Statistical analysis was done using the IBM SPSS (IBM, Armonk, NY, USA) software and P < 0.05 was considered significant. Results: Strong EGFR expression was present in 93.4% of the cases, while 6.6% of cases showed moderate expression. Strong EGFR expression was associated with the tumor size of >4 cm size. There was no association of EGFR expression with tumor grade, tumor stage, and lymph node metastasis. Conclusions: The present study showed that a significantly higher number of cases of invasive SCC of uterine cervix show increased EGFR expression. The EGFR expression is associated with tumor size.