Correlation between Aurora-A expression and the prognosis of cervical carcinoma patients.

OBJECTIVE: Aurora-A, a novel member of the serine/threonine kinase family, has been reported to be correlated with tumorigenesis. Our aim was to investigate whether Aurora-A expression correlates with clinicopathologic factors and prognosis of cervical carcinoma patients. DESIGN/SETTING: Retrospective study. POPULATION: Seventy-four cervical carcinoma patients, between 1996 and 2002. METHODS: Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction and Western blot assays were performed to detect the expression of Aurora-A gene in cervical carcinoma cells and paired cancerous and corresponding noncancerous tissues from 74 cervical carcinoma patients. The expression of Aurora-A protein in tissues was also determined by immunohistochemistry. The relationships of Aurora-A expression with clinical factors and prognosis of patients were evaluated by statistical analysis. RESULTS: The expression of Aurora-A mRNA and protein was significantly higher in cervical carcinoma cells than in normal cervical epithelial cell (p<0.05). The expression of Aurora-A mRNA in cancerous tissues was significantly higher than that in corresponding noncancerous tissues (p<0.001). The expression of Aurora-A protein was also increased in tumor tissues by immunochemistry. Aurora-A transcript expression was correlated with FIGO stage (p=0.018), tumor differentiation (p=0.014), parametrial invasion (p=0.024), lymphnode or hematogenous metastasis (p=0.005 or 0.019), but not other clinicopathological factors. Patients with high Aurora-A expression had a poorer disease-free survival and overall survival rates than patients with low Aurora-A expression. Multivariate analysis showed that high Aurora-A mRNA expression was an independent prognostic factor (risk ratio: 2.88; p=0.005). CONCLUSIONS: Aurora-A might be used as a prognostic marker for cervical carcinoma patients.