EGFR and pulmonary fibrosis: Finally, in an attempt to support our premise that EGFR upregulation may contribute to lung fibrosis and lead to more progressive disease stages, we have demonstrated that EGFR quantitative mRNA expression levels were positively correlated with expression levels of indicators of lung fibrosis such as COL1A2 while an almost linear negative association with markers of disease prognosis including pulmonary function parameters such as FVC and DLCO was also shown.