pharmaceuticals Review Potentiating Therapeutic Effects of Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor Inhibition in Triple-Negative Breast Cancer Kyu Sic You 1,2,† , Yong Weon Yi 3,† , Jeonghee Cho 3 , Jeong-Soo Park 1,* and Yeon-Sun Seong 1,2,3,* 1 Department of Biochemistry, College of Medicine, Dankook University, Cheonan 31116, Chungcheongnam-do, Korea;
[email protected] 2 Graduate School of Convergence Medical Science, Dankook University, Cheonan 3116, Chungcheongnam-do, Korea 3 Department of Nanobiomedical Science, Dankook University, Cheonan 31116, Chungcheongnam-do, Korea;
[email protected] (Y.W.Y.);
[email protected] (J.C.) * Correspondence:
[email protected] (J.-S.P.);
[email protected] (Y.-S.S.); Tel.: +82-41-550-3876 (J.-S.P.); +82-41-550-3875 (Y.-S.S.) † These authors contributed equally to this work. Abstract: Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is a subset of breast cancer with aggressive charac- teristics and few therapeutic options. The lack of an appropriate therapeutic target is a challenging issue in treating TNBC. Although a high level expression of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) has been associated with a poor prognosis among patients with TNBC, targeted anti-EGFR therapies have demonstrated limited efficacy for TNBC treatment in both clinical and preclinical settings. However, with the advantage of a number of clinically approved EGFR inhibitors (EGFRis), combi- nation strategies have been explored as a promising approach to overcome the intrinsic resistance of TNBC to EGFRis. In this review, we analyzed the literature on the combination of EGFRis with Citation: You, K.S.; Yi, Y.W.; Cho, J.; other molecularly targeted therapeutics or conventional chemotherapeutics to understand the current Park, J.-S.; Seong, Y.-S.