As EGFR pathway activation has been shown to inhibit p53/caspase-3 dependent cell apoptosis33, our data also indicated that the tumor expression of p-p53 and caspase-3 cleavage was decreased in DDP treated mice that were co-injected with FaDu cells and rCAFs compared with the DDP treated mice that were either co-injected with FaDu and sCAFs or injected with FaDu cells only (Fig. 6e). Here, EGFR is linked to neoplasm.