EGFR and Uterine leiomyoma: Interestingly, we found that EGFR phosphorylation was up-regulated by Cd, which mimicked the effects of E2; Shimomura et al. (1998) reported that E2 can up-regulate EGFR expression in cultured human uterine leiomyoma cells, and we found similar results in fibroid tissue samples from women in the proliferative (estrogenic) phase of the menstrual cycle (Yu et al. 2008).