Background and purpose: Survivin is one of the apoptosis inhibitor proteins. Together with Aurora B, it also plays a role in regulating several aspects of mitosis. High expression of these markers is correlated with malignant behavior of various cancers and resistance to therapy. Our aim was to evaluate the prognostic role of these markers in head and neck cancers.
Patients and methods: We evaluated the expression of Aurora B and survivin in tissue specimens of 58 patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma using immunohistochemistry.
Results: Patients who showed high expression of cytoplasmic and nuclear survivin and Aurora B had significantly shorter overall survival (p = 0.036, p < 0.000, p = 0.032, respectively). In multivariate analysis, high expression of nuclear survivin was the only independent negative prognostic factor (p = 0.024). Moreover, it was found that high co-expression of nuclear survivin and Aurora B had a negative effect on survival in univariate (p < 0.000) and multivariate (p < 0.000) analyses.
Conclusion: The negative prognostic values of high expression of Aurora B and high co-expression of nuclear survivin and Aurora B on survival were shown. These findings suggest that co-expression of nuclear survivin and Aurora B can be useful diagnostic markers and therapeutic targets for head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. However, further studies with a larger number of patients in a more homogeneous disease group are needed to confirm the conclusion.