The involvement of EGFR, HER2 and HER3 in the basal cell carcinomas aggressiveness.

Basal cell carcinomas (BCCs) are the most common malignant skin tumors, with variable prognosis and recurrence rates, depending on histopathological subtypes. The study analyzed the immunoexpression of epidermal growth factor receptors (EGFRs) in 53 cases of nodular, adenoid and morpheaform BCCs in relation to clinico-pathological associated parameters. We found significant differences in the expression of EGFR, HER2 and HER3 reported to histological BCC types. The nodular type presented the weakest expression of EGFRs, while the morpheaform type had a high expression of all receptors and the adenoid type an increased expression only in case of EGFR and HER2. This study supports the involvement of EGFR, HER2 and HER3 in BCC aggressiveness of and in tumor differentiating towards different histological subtypes.