清热解毒类中药冬凌草临床上对食管癌、喉癌、贲门癌等多种肿瘤疗效确切，其主要有效成分为冬凌草甲素。前期工作中我们首次发现冬凌草甲素可以靶向作用于喉癌中高表达的表皮生长因子受体（EGFR），且EGFR抑制剂对冬凌草甲素抗喉癌起到协同增效的作用，据此我们提出假设：冬凌草甲素与EGFR抑制剂联合用药可能是提高喉癌疗效的有效途径。本课题拟在前期工作基础上将临床EGFR分子靶向药物Cetuximab与冬凌草甲素联合作用于喉癌，从体内、体外水平共同探索EGFR信号传导通路与药物协同抗肿瘤活性关联的分子机制，并揭示联合用药的功效及其它深入的作用机制，为进一步的临床用药提供科学理论依据。本课题首次基于EGFR药物靶点运用中西药联合疗法提高抗喉癌的疗效，若实施完成将不仅为清热解毒类中药冬凌草在治疗喉癌方面的应用提供了新的策略，同时也为发掘中药治疗疾病潜能、推进中西医结合疗法的科学化提供借鉴，具有重要的示范作用

Traditional Chinese herbal medicine "Rabdosia rubescens", which is able to clear away heat and toxic material, exhibits in clinic satisfactory efficacy against esophageal carcinoma, laryngocarcinoma, gastric cardia carcinoma and other tumors. Its effective constituent is oridonin.In previous work, we firstly demonstrated that oridonin targets the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) over-expressed in laryngeal, and the inhibitor of EGFR plays a synergistic effect with oridonin for treatment of the laryngeal cancer. Accordingly, we hypothesized that combination therapy of oridonin and EGFR inhibitor may provide an effective method for improving efficacy of anti-laryngeal carcinoma.On the basis of our previous study, this project is intended to explore the synergistic efficacy and action mechanism against laryngeal carcinoma by combination therapy of cetuximab(an anti-EGFR agent) and oridonin, and will provide scientific evidence for the clinical application. The study will use combination therapy of traditional Chinese medicine and western medicine, based on the EGFR drug targets to improve the clinical efficacy of anti-laryngeal for the first time. The implementation of the project will provide a new strategy for the application of traditional Chinese herbal medicine "Rabdosia rubescens" on laryngeal carcinoma，and will also provide a reference in exploring the therapeutical potential of traditional Chinese medicine and promoting the scientization for combination therapy of traditional Chinese medicine and western medicine, which possess significant demonstration effect.