What is it about?
This paper shows that breast cancer cases with Aurora A nuclear staining of the tumors have significantly shorter 10 year breast cancer free survival after Cox correction for other pathological parameters. The 10 year breast cancer free survival was very poor (< 25%) for BRCA2 mutation carriers that had also lost their wild-type BRCA2 allele in the tumor. The hazard ratio was high for Aurora-A nuclear staining of BRCA2 mutation carriers although corrected for many pathological parameters and treatment.
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Why is it important?
Targeted treatment is needed against Aurora A among breast cancer cases that have positive Aurora-A nuclear staining in their tumors. Selective Aurora A and PARP inhibitors are presently being studied in preclinical and early clinical trials. These inhibitors might improve treatment benefits for BRCA2 breast cancer patients overexpressing Aurora A in the future. Therefore, screening for Aurora A nuclear expression should be considered for routine use as a clinical marker for breast cancer, at least in the case of BRCA2 mutation carriers.
Perspectives
Adjuvant treatment (chemotherapy, radiation and endocrine treatment) does not seem to have any benefit for BRCA2 mutation carriers that express Aurora A in nuclei and have lost their wild-type BRCA2 allele in the tumor. Therefore new treatment strategies are needed for this subgroup. Also, in light of poor outcome of ER positive BRCA2 mutation carriers that overexpress Aurora A these treatment strategies should also be applied this subgroup - see supplementary information of the paper.
Dr Sigridur K Bodvarsdottir
University of Iceland
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Aurora A is a prognostic marker for breast cancer arising inBRCA2mutation carriers, The Journal of Pathology Clinical Research, November 2014, Wiley,
DOI: 10.1002/cjp2.6.
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