Urothelial cell carcinoma (UCC) is the most common primary malignancy of the urinary system and the second-most common type of renal cell carcinoma. Aurora kinase A (AURKA), a serine/threonine kinase, has a critical role in centrosome duplication, spindle assembly checkpoint, and cytokinesis. Here, we determined the correlation between UCC susceptibility and AURKA polymorphisms. We used real-time polymerase chain reaction to compare the genotype distributions and allelic frequencies of four single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of AURKA, namely rs1047972, rs2273535, rs2064863, and rs6024836, between 431 UCC cases and 862 healthy controls. Logistic regression models demonstrated that the G allele of rs2064863, a genetic polymorphism of AURKA, exhibited a significant protective effect against UCC among the 862 nonsmokers. Moreover, patients with rs2064863 G allele exhibited a slightly lower risk of lymph node metastasis and those with rs6024836 G allele exhibited a lower risk of distant metastases. Our study suggested that several variants of AURKA SNPs rs2064863 and rs6024836 may serve as critical predictors for the clinical status of UCC.
Keywords: Aurora kinase A; single nucleotide polymorphism; susceptibility; urothelial cell carcinoma.