These results suggest that BPDE-induced transformation requires EGFR-mediated Akt and ERK activation, and that MUC1 plays a lung cancer-promoting role during lung cancer development, at least partly through mediating carcinogen-induced activation of the EGFR-mediated cell survival pathways that neutralize carcinogen's cytotoxicity to facilitate cell transformation (Fig. 7). The gene discussed is EGFR; the disease is lung cancer.