Our experiments showing a decrease of colony formation in the presence of epiregulin neutralizing antibody and epiregulin siRNA indicate that the epithelial-mesenchymal interaction could possibly be controlled in middle ear cholesteatoma, and suggest that epiregulin produced by subepithelial fibroblasts may be a potential target for the treatment of this disease. The gene discussed is EREG; the disease is cholesteatoma of middle ear.