Background   Cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (cSCC), is one of the most common skin malignant tumors in clinic, accounting for 20% of all skin cancer deaths. Some advanced cSCC patients cannot be effectively treated by operation. The guidelines recommend molecular targeted therapy, immunotherapy, chemotherapy and other systemic therapies to improve prognosis for these patients.

  Objective   To study the effect of cetuximab on the proliferation and apoptosis of cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma cell line A-431 with high expression of epidermal growth factor receptor (epidermal growth factor receptor, EGFR).

  Methods   The expression of EGFR in A-431 cells were screened from the human protein map database and verified by Western blot experiment. A-431 cells were randomly divided into control group and cetuximab treatment group (200 μ G/mL), and MTT assay was used to detect the effect of cetuximab on the proliferation and toxicity of A-431 cells in vitro. Flow cytometry was performed to detect apoptosis.

  Results   In the human protein map database, 41 kinds of normal tissues and tumor cell lines were compared, among which the expression of EGFR in A-431 cells was the highest. The expression of EGFR in A-431 cell was significantly higher than that in human immortalized epidermal cell HaCat by Western blot. MTT assay showed that cetuximab strongly inhibited the proliferation of A-431 cells at the concentration of 200 μg/mL and killed about 61.35% of tumor cells (P<0.01). Flow cytometry showed that the apoptosis rate of cetuximab at the concentration of 150 μg/mL was 29.85%, while that of the control group was only 10.44% (P<0.01).

  Conclusion   Cetuximab has good killing ability to cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma cell line A-431 with high expression of EGFR and significantly increases the apoptosis of tumor cells, which provides a therapeutic strategy for cSCC patients who cannot be treated by surgery.