Aurora Kinase A expression is associated with lung cancer histological-subtypes and with tumor de-differentiation

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Aurora kinase A (<it>AURKA</it>) is a member of serine/threonine kinase family. Several kinases belonging to this family are activated in the G2/M phase of the cell cycle being involved in mitotic chromosomal segregation. <it>AURKA </it>overexpression is significantly associated with neoplastic transformation in several tumors and deregulated <it>Aurora Kinases </it>expression leads to chromosome instability, thus contributing to cancer progression. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the expression of <it>AURKA </it>in non small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) specimens and to correlate its mRNA or protein expression with patients' clinico-pathological features.</p> <p>Materials and methods</p> <p>Quantitative real-time PCR and immunohistochemistry analysis on matched cancer and corresponding normal tissues from surgically resected non-small cell lung cancers (NSCLC) have been performed aiming to explore the expression levels of <it>AURKA </it>gene.</p> <p>Results</p> <p><it>AURKA </it>expression was significantly up-modulated in tumor samples compared to matched lung tissue (p < 0.01, mean log2(FC) = 1.5). Moreover, <it>AURKA </it>was principally up-modulated in moderately and poorly differentiated lung cancers (p < 0.01), as well as in squamous and adenocarcinomas compared to the non-invasive bronchioloalveolar histotype (p = 0.029). No correlation with survival was observed.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>These results indicate that in NSCLC <it>AURKA </it>over-expression is restricted to specific subtypes and poorly differentiated tumors.</p