Abstract 430P
Background
Aurora kinase A (AURKA) is a serine/threonine kinase involved in many biological processes such as in G2/M transition, mitotic spindle assembly and DNA replication. AURKA is expressed in many cancer types and associated with worse treatment outcome. This study aims to explore the expressions of AURKA in nasopharyngeal cancer (NPC) tissues, and to find the association with patients' clinical characters and treatment responses.
Methods
The formalin-fixed paraffine embedded tissues from adult NPC patients were selected for immunohistochemistry test. A polyclonal, rabbit AURKA antibody (FNab10043) was used for detecting AURKA expression. The visible cellular brown staining was considered as a positive expression. A semi-quantitative evaluation of immunohistochemical staining was calculated based on the intensity and extent of staining. The merged overall scores ≥ 5 were classified as high staining, while scores ≤ 4 were regarded as low staining. The immunohistochemical staining scores were evaluated by 2 independent pathologists. Clinical characters such as tumor stage, nodal stage, and response to standard treatment were analyzed based on AURKA immunohistochemical staining scores.
Results
There were 64 NPC patients with available FFPE tissues. Thirty-six (56.3%) tissue samples expressed high staining AURKA. High-staining expression of AURKAs had tendencies to be found in advanced stages compared to early stages (56.8% vs.43.2%; p = 0.924). Samples from NPC patients with distant metastasis at first presentation had more high-staining expressions (67.7% vs. 33.3%; p = 0.497). The clinical benefit rate of standard treatment for NPC was lower in the high-staining group compared to the low-staining group (72.7% vs. 92.8%; p <0.024).
Conclusions
AURKAs were expressed abundantly in NPC tissues. High immunostaining score of AURKA was significantly associated with lower clinical benefit rate of a standard NPC treatment.
Clinical trial identification
Editorial acknowledgement
Legal entity responsible for the study
The author.
Funding
Faculty of Medicine, Public Health and Nursing, Universitas Gadjah Mada.
Disclosure
The author has declared no conflicts of interest.