title: Aurora A overexpression in breast cancer patients induces taxane resistance and results in worse prognosis.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The aim of this study was to determine the expression level of Aurora A in human breast cancer tissues and to test whether there is a relationship between its expression levels and clinicopathological parameters including response to taxanes, tumor grade, estrogen receptor (ER) status, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) status, and overall survival (OS).
  
  
  METHODS
  We retrospectively analyzed paraffin-embedded tissue sections from 49 metastatic breast cancer patients whose clinical outcomes had been tracked after taxane treatment. The expression status of Aurora A was defined by immunohistochemistry (IHC) using the anti-Aurora A antibody.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Aurora A was overexpressed in 73% of the examined specimens. There was significant correlation between high Aurora A expression and decreased taxane sensitivity (p=0.02). There was no association between the clinicopathological parameters including histologic grade, ER positivity and triple negative molecular subtype and the level of Aurora A expression. However, HER2 positive tumors showed significantly higher Aurora A expression compared with HER2 negative tumors (p=0.02). Kaplan-Meier survival analysis failed to show a significant correlation between expression levels of Aurora A and OS although patients with low Aurora A levels had a marginally longer survival compared to patients with high levels.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our data suggest that Aurora A may be a promising predictive and prognostic marker in patients with breast cancer.
authors: Department of Medical Oncology, Bursa Medical Park Hospital, Bahcesehir University School of Medicine, Istanbul, Turkey.
authors: Yalcin
authors: Y
authors: Cirak
authors: Yavuz
authors: Y
authors: Furuncuoglu
authors: Ozlem
authors: O
authors: Yapicier
authors: Asude
authors: A
authors: Aksu
authors: Erdem
authors: E
authors: Cubukcu
mesh_terms: D064096:Aurora Kinase A / Q000032:analysis / Q000502:physiology*; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000401:mortality; D001952:Bridged-Ring Compounds / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D019008:Drug Resistance, Neoplasm; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D011379:Prognosis; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases / Q000032:analysis; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D043823:Taxoids / Q000627:therapeutic use*
chemical_list: D064096:Aurora Kinase A; D001952:Bridged-Ring Compounds; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases; D043823:Taxoids; C080625:taxane; C508053:ERBB2 protein, human; C576917:AURKA protein, human