# EGF

Source: https://onco.cc/targets/egf/  
OnCo record `egf` (Target). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

EGF (Pro-epidermal growth factor) is a gene. The public catalogues list it as a drug target and a biomarker, and clinical evidence ties its variants to diagnosis, prognosis or drug response. Tied to Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.

## Summary

EGF stimulates the growth of various epidermal and epithelial tissues in vivo and in vitro and of some fibroblasts in cell culture. Magnesiotropic hormone that stimulates magnesium reabsorption in the renal distal convoluted tubule via engagement of EGFR and activation of the magnesium channel TRPM6. Can induce neurite outgrowth in motoneurons of the pond snail Lymnaea stagnalis in vitro.

CIViC holds 1 clinical evidence item and 0 assertions across 1 variant, naming Cetuximab. Open Targets scores its association with cancer at 0.65 (direct and indirect evidence; datatypes literature 0.99, affected pathway 0.99, genetic association 0.23).

## Fields

- Kind: Target
- Last checked: 2026-09-23
- Also known as: epidermal growth factor; Pro-epidermal growth factor
- Tags: cancer-genes-wave
- Symbol: EGF
- Class: other
- Biology: EGF stimulates the growth of various epidermal and epithelial tissues in vivo and in vitro and of some fibroblasts in cell culture. Magnesiotropic hormone that stimulates magnesium reabsorption in the renal distal convoluted tubule via engagement of EGFR and activation of the magnesium channel TRPM6. Can induce neurite outgrowth in motoneurons of the pond snail Lymnaea stagnalis in vitro. Location: Membrane (UniProt). Locus 4q25 (HGNC).
- Where found: Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma: CIViC evidence names this disease

## Notes

- Written by scripts/fetch-cancer-genes.ts from CIViC, Open Targets, IntOGen, HGNC and UniProt; the function text is UniProt's, condensed and in UK spelling. Roles: CIViC lists 1 therapies; CIViC holds 1 clinical evidence items on its variants. Evidence tier "clinical-evidence" is the strongest of those signals.
- Prevalence not recorded: none of the sources gives a positivity rate.

## Sources

- HGNC HGNC:3229: https://www.genenames.org/data/gene-symbol-report/#!/hgnc_id/HGNC:3229
- UniProt P01133: https://www.uniprot.org/uniprotkb/P01133/entry
- NCBI Gene 1950: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/gene/1950
- Ensembl ENSG00000138798: https://www.ensembl.org/Homo_sapiens/Gene/Summary?g=ENSG00000138798

## Connected records

- collections: [CIViC](https://onco.cc/collections/civic/), [Open Targets Platform](https://onco.cc/collections/open-targets/)
- cancers: [Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma](https://onco.cc/cancers/head-and-neck/)
- pathways: [Receptor tyrosine kinase activation](https://onco.cc/pathways/rtk-activation/)

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JSON: https://onco.cc/api/v1/entities/egf.json