Polymorphisms in AURKA and AURKB are associated with the survival of triple-negative breast cancer patients treated with taxane-based adjuvant chemotherapy.

Abstract

PurposeTriple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is more than a single disease. Identifying biomarkers to further subdivide TNBC patients with distinct outcome is of great importance. It has been reported that single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in Aurora kinase A (AURKA) or Aurora kinase B (AURKB) are associated with the risk and survival of several cancers. But till now, there is no research about these polymorphisms in TNBC patients.Materials and methodsIn this study, we investigated the association between polymorphisms in AURKA or AURKB gene and prognosis of TNBC patients treated with taxane-based adjuvant chemotherapy. A total of 273 TNBC patients were enrolled. Haploview 4.2 software was used to identify Tag SNPs. Genotyping was conducted using the MassARRAY MALDI-TOF system.ResultsWe found that AURKA rs6099128 GG genotype carriers had significantly worse overall survival (OS) than TT+ TG genotype carriers (P = 0.003, HR = 12.499, 95% CI = 2.357–66.298). AURKB rs11651993 TT genotype carriers had better disease-free survival (DFS) than TC + CC genotype carriers (P = 0.018, HR = 1.876, 95% CI = 1.116–3.154). AURKB rs2289590 CC genotype carriers had worse DFS than CA + AA genotype carriers (P = 0.021, HR = 0.536, 95% CI = 0.315–0.912). After subgroup analysis, rs11651993 TC + CC genotype predicted worse DFS in subgroups of age ≤ 50, post-menopausal, grade unknown (UK), tumor size >2 cm, and lymph node negative. Rs2289590 CA + AA genotype could predict favorable DFS in pre-menopausal, grade 3 and lymph node-positive patients.ConclusionWe first demonstrated that polymorphisms in AURKA or AURKB gene might predict the OS or DFS of TNBC patients treated with taxane-based adjuvant chemotherapy.