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The squamous mucosa of patients who develop head and neck cancer is “condemned” or predisposed to disregulated growth as reflected by the high incidence of synchronous and metachronous primary tumors. We hypothesized that transformed and nontransformed mucosa from head and neck cancer patients would produce increased levels of transforming growth factor α (TGF-α) and its cell surface receptor, the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), thereby contributing to this predisposition. Using molecular biological techniques, we examined the incidence and mechanism of TGF-α and EGFR overproduction in tumors and histologically normal mucosa excised from patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (SCCHN) to test this hypothetical mechanism of field cancerization. Northern blot hybridization was used to evaluate the frequency of increased TGF-α and EGFR mRNA production in …