The epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) is a member of the EGFR family of receptors. EGFR and other members of the EGFR family have been shown to play significant roles in human cancer cell proliferation and therefore present important molecular targets for the treatment of cancer. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of the pan-erbB tyrosine kinase inhibitor CI-1033 against esophageal squamous cell carcinoma in vitro and in vivo. We selected 4 human esophageal squamous cell carcinoma cell lines (TT, TE2, TE6, and TE10), and determined their expression of EGFR and HER2. We examined the ability of CI-1033 to inhibit cell growth in vitro and in vivo. EGFR and HER2 were overexpressed in all 4 esophageal cancer cells. We found that CI-1033 could inhibit the growth of esophageal cancer cell lines in a dose-dependent manner with the inhibition of phosphorylation of both MAPK and AKT. The oral administration of CI-1033 exerted a significant antitumor effect on esophageal cancer tumors in athymic nude mice. Our results suggest that CI-1033 effectively inhibits the growth of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma which co-expresses both EGFR and HER2 with the inhibition of phosphorylation of both MAPK and AKT. Furthermore, in vivo animal studies of CI-1033 suggest that CI-1033 holds significant clinical potential in esophageal cancer.

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