EGF and cancer: For example, it was found that epidermal growth factor (EGF) treatment could reduce the binding of KE-2 antibodies (which recognize an epitope on the heavy chain of HLA class I molecules) to A431 cells; a finding that pre-dates the seminal paper by Sporn and Roberts (1985) regarding the autocrine secretion of growth factors such as TGF-α by cancer cells (Schreiber et al., 1984; Sporn and Roberts, 1985).