Co-expression of epidermal growth factor receptor and transforming growth factor-alpha is independent of ras mutations in lung adenocarcinoma

The interaction of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and its ligand transforming growth factor-alpha (TGF-alpha) leads to an autocrine activation of the ras signaling pathway and putatively its oncogenic activity. It is thus hypothesized that the co-overexpression of EGFR-TGFalpha will be redundant hence rare in tumors with oncogenic ras mutations. To test this hypothesis, we studied by immunohistochemistry the expression of EGFR and TGF-alpha in primary non small cell lung cancers. Such putative EGFR autocrine loop activation was found in 73% of squamous cell carcinomas that rarely develop ras mutations. In contrast, EGFR-TGFalpha co-expression occurred with equal frequency in adenocarcinomas irrespective of their ras genotype. The results indicate that EGFR autocrine loop activity in adenocarcinoma may have alternative signaling activities aside from the activation of ras-MAP kinase pathway.