AMERICAN JOURNAL OF RESEARCH IN MEDICAL SCIENCES, 2018 VOL 2, NO. 1 10.5455/ajrms.20171201093445 eJManager ORIGINAL ARTICLE Open Access Prognosic signiicance and therapeuic implicaions of PTEN, EGFR and MAPK/ERK in cervical squamous cell carcinoma Hanan Lofy Mohammed 1 , Hanaa A Atwa 1 , Abdelmonem Awad Hegazy 2 , Amira Elwan 3 , Nashwa Nawar 3 , Mostafa Abdo Salem 4 , Ismail I. Khalil 4 1 Department of Pathology, Zagazig University, Zagazig, Egypt 2 Department of Anatomy and Embryology, Zagazig University, Zagazig, Egypt 3 Department of Medical Oncology, Zagazig University, Zagazig, Egypt 4 Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Zagazig University, Zagazig, Egypt ABSTRACT Introducion: There is a considerable need for cervical cancer treatments. The epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and its pathway molecules afect cervical squamous cell carcinoma (CSCC) regarding its prognosis and ani-cancer therapy. Aims of Study: To invesigate the biologic expression of EGFR and the mitogen-acivated protein kinase/extracellular signal-regulated kinase (MAPK/ERK) pathway mediators in CSCCs, by invesigaing immunohistochemical expressions of EGFR, extracellular signal– regulated kinases (ERK1/2) and phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN), in a trial to assess their prognosic and survival outcome. Paients and Methods: Immunohistochemical analysis was performed for 35 cervical squamous cell carcinoma specimens to detect three target anigens EGFR, PTEN, and MAPK/ERK1/2. Results: EGFR and MAPK/ERK1/2 staining showed a signiicant associaion with each of the following clinical parameters – increased paient age, high tumor stage, grade and posiive lymph nodes (LN). They are also associated with relapse and poor paient sur- vival. PTEN showed a signiicant associaion with decreased age, small tumor size, low grade, low stage and negaive LN, meaning a good prognosic clinical outcome with less relapse. Conclusion: Cervical cancer paients with PTEN expression had good prognosis in con- trary to those with EGFR and ERK expressions that had poor prognosis. Treatment direc- ions of CSCC might be of great beneits in the form of an improved clinical outcome with EGFR pathway targeted therapy. ARTICLE HISTORY Received December 01, 2017 Accepted December 26, 2017 Published December 30, 2017 KEYWORDS Cervix; carcinoma; prognosis; therapy; immunohistochemistry Introducion Cervical cancer is one of the most frequently diag- nosed malignancies representing the fourth leading cause of cancer-related death in females’ worldwide [1]. The highest mortality rates are found in African and South Asian countries [2]. Cancer cervix asso- ciated mortality rates have dramatically declined in developed countries owing to introduction of national cervical cytology screening programs [3]. The standard treatment for locally advanced cervi- cal cancer consists of concurrent chemo radiation. This leads to a five-year survival rate of only 66% [4]. Therefore, there is a considerable need for cer- vical cancer treatments. The epidermal growth fac- tor receptor (EGFR) is a well characterized target for anti-cancer therapies in many tumors [5]. Its stimulation activates a tyrosine kinase domain that affects multiple cellular functions including growth and replication [6]. EGFR stimulation activates the mitogen-activated protein kinase/extracellu- Contact Abdelmonem Awad Hegazy dr.abdelmonemhegazy@yahoo.com Department of Anatomy and Embryology, Zagazig University, Zagazig, Egypt. © EJManager. This is an open access aricle licensed under the terms of the Creaive Commons Atribuion Non-Commercial License (htp:// creaivecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted, noncommercial use, distribuion and reproducion in any medium, provided the work is properly cited.