EGFR and cancer: Firstly, Cu (II) can significantly induce ligand-independent receptor tyrosine kinase (RTK) signaling pathways in cancer cells, and activated RTKs (including epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), hepatocyte growth factor receptor (MET), etc.)subsequently promote cancer cell migration and proliferation by causing downstream extracellular regulated protein kinases (ERK) and agammaglobulinemia tyrosine kinase (ATK) phosphorylation (He et al., 2019).