Aurora kinase B is an exceptional prognostic biomarker for invasive ductal carcinoma and may be a new target for endocrine therapy-resistant breast cancer

Background: New treatments and molecular biomarkers should be researched and developed to improve the therapeutic outcomes of breast cancer patients. Objective: To investigate the correlations of Aurora kinase B expression with the clinicopathological characteristics of invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC). Methods: Tissue microarrays containing primary IDC specimens from 310 patients with 93.37 +/- 38.41 months follow-up were employed to assess the expression of Aurora kinase B using immunohistochemistry. Association of pathological characteristics with cumulative survival was analyzed by Kaplan-Meier analysis. Results: Aurora kinase B was expressed in 25.5% of the IDC samples. Aurora kinase B-positive patients had significantly poorer survival than Aurora kinase B-negative patients (P = 0.016). For subgroup analysis, in ER and/or PR positive subgroup, which is also endocrine therapy-receiving group, Aurora kinase B expression was associated with a poorer prognosis (P<0.05) both in premenopause patients and postmenopause patients. While in ER-and PR-negative subgroup, aurora kinase B expression was not correlated with patient's survival. Conclusion: Our results indicate that aurora kinase B is an exceptional prognostic biomarker for invasive ductal carcinoma. Aurora kinase B may be related to endocrine therapy resistance. Inhibition of Aurora kinase B might be a candidate breast cancer treatment for patients with acquired resistance to anti-estrogen.