Minabe M, et al. - In oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC), researchers investigated the interaction of desmoglein (DSG) 3 and epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and its influence on cetuximab therapy. For the experiment, they used cell lines established from the primary tumor and metastatic lymph nodes of four OSCC subjects and three commercial OSCC cell lines. They found an expression of increased DSG3 and EGFR in cells from metastatic lymph nodes of each subject vs cells from the primary tumor in the same individual. They observed increased DSG3 expression with cetuximab treatment by up to 3.5-fold in 7 of the 11 cell lines. An increase in the expression of DSG3 and EGFR in a dose-dependent manner was noted with high calcium concentration, and cetuximab efficacy was increased by up to 23% as a result of a high-calcium-associated DSG3 induction cetuximab-low-sensitive cell lines.