Targeted therapy to the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) seems to be related to its expression level on tumor cells. Interferon-alpha (IFN-alpha) induces growth inhibition but also may up-regulate the EGFR expression in some cancer cell lines. We aimed to determine whether the IFN-alpha combined with an EGFR-specific monoclonal antibody (nimotuzumab) may affect the growth of human tumor epithelial cell lines with different EGFR expression levels. H125, a lung adenosquamous carcinoma, and A431, a vulvar epidermoid carcinoma, cell lines express intermediate and high levels of EGFR, respectively, whereas MDA MB231, a breast adenocarcinoma cell line expresses undetectable levels of EGFR measured by flow cytometry/FACS. We found that IFN-alpha alone inhibited in a dose-dependent fashion the growth of all cell lines, but only up-regulated the EGFR expression in the lung carcinoma-derived cell line. Noteworthy, the combined treatment did not modify the complement-mediated cytotoxicity of the antibody although the antiproliferative activity of nimotuzumab in H125 cells in vitro increased when an IFN-alpha-conditioning treatment was used. In conclusion, this study may provide insights about the rational use of EGFR inhibitors into the immunopharmacological management of targeted therapies including the IFN-alpha for lung cancer.