Related medicinesCetuximabPanitumumab
Where it comes from
- Made in
- Keratinocytes, macrophages, ovarian granulosa cells, placenta and colorectal tumours
- Sent out by
- Shed by ADAM17; in the follicle, in the hours before ovulation
- Acts on
- Keratinocytes
- Smooth muscle
- Oocyte complex
- Tumour cells
What it does
- With amphiregulin, carries the ovulation signal to the egg
- Promotes wound healing and angiogenesis
- Supports the growth of colorectal cancers
In medicine
- High EREG expression predicts which colorectal cancers respond to cetuximab: in the study that showed it, disease control went with high epiregulin and a normal KRAS gene 3
- No medicine copies it, and the EREG measurement has stayed in research rather than becoming a routine test
Beyond the body’s own use
- Not a treatment. What is studied is the prediction: whether measuring EREG could spare a patient months of an antibody that will not work 3
- It was found as a growth factor for rat liver cells and binds ErbB4 as well as EGFR, which is why its effects differ from EGF’s in the same tissue 1
- In the ovary it carries the LH surge’s message to the egg alongside amphiregulin 2
Sources
- Toyoda et al., Epiregulin: an epidermal growth factor with mitogenic activity for hepatocytes, Journal of Biological Chemistry 1995
- Park et al., EGF-like growth factors as mediators of LH action in the ovulatory follicle, Science 2004
- Khambata-Ford et al., Epiregulin and amphiregulin expression predict disease control with cetuximab, Journal of Clinical Oncology 2007
This card describes what a medicine is for and what the evidence says; it recommends nothing. Talk to your clinician about anything you read here.