Fig. 7.

Schematic summary of our study. We showed the distinct effects of EGFR inhibitors on epithelial-like and mesenchymal-like ESCC cells. In epithelial-like ESCC cells, suppression of EGFR signaling due to EGFR inhibitors resulted in the promotion of squamous cell differentiation and cell growth inhibition; conversely, activation of EGFR phosphorylation due to rEGF suppressed squamous cell differentiation. In contrast, neither EGFR inhibitors nor rEGF affected EGFR phosphorylation in mesenchymal-like ESCC cells, and thereby mesenchymal-like ESCC cells are considered to be resistant to EGFR inhibitors.