EGFR and head and neck cancer: Inhibition of the EGFR tyrosine kinase by gefitinib and erlotinib has also been shown to induce autophagy in non-small-cell lung cancer [18,54] and blocking the EGFR receptor function with cetuximab induced autophagy in human vulvar squamous carcinoma, colorectal adenocarcinoma and head and neck cancer cells [21].