The Expression and Prognosis for Aurora kinases in Human non-small cell lung cancer

Purpose: Aurora kinases, as all known members of serine/threonine kinases genes family, have been found in various types of human cancer, playing their role as potent oncogenes. Increasing evidence showes that Aurora kinases are involved in lung cancer progression. However, the expression and clinical values of 3 types of Aurora kinases are still need to be further analyzed. Methods: The expression and prognosis data of AURKs in patients with lung cancer were used to comprehensively analyze by multiple online databases including Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), Oncomine, gene expression profiling interactive analysis (GEPIA), Kaplan–Meier Plotter, cBioPortal, LinkedOmics.Immunohistochemistry (IHC) were also performed to explore AURKA and AURKB expression in LUAD. Results: According to the results, the expression levels of AURKA and AURKB were higher in lung cancer tissues than in normal, whereas the AURKC expression was lower in lung cancer compared with normal. Both the AURKA and AURKB expression were positively correlated with advanced tumor stage in LUAD .Concurrently, AURKA was also significant positive correlated with advanced stage in LUSC. Survival analysis revealed that the high expression of AURKs were associated with low overall survival (OS), progression-free survival (PFS), and post-progression survival (PPS) of all of the patients with lung cancer especially in LUAD.AURKA and AURKB expression levels significantly correlated with immune cell infiltration and immune checkpoint genes in LUAD,suggested AURKA and AURKB were potential target for improving the efficacy of immunotherapy in LUAD patients. Conclusion: In summary, this study implied that AURKA and AURKB are valuable markers for the prognosis of non-small cell lung cancer.