Aurora kinases A and B and familial breast cancer risk

Aurora genes play a crucial role in tumourigenesis and are overexpressed in many kinds of cancers. We investigated whether coding variants within the Aurora genes are associated with familial breast cancer risk. While AURKA Phe31Ile (1712T>A) and AURKB Thr298Met (893G>A) showed no association, the synonymous AURKB Ser295Ser (885A>G) polymorphism resulted in an increased breast cancer risk for carriers of the homozygous 885G genotype (OR = 1.45, 95% CI = 1.05–2.0, P = 0.02). Due to the impact of aurora kinases in the loss of chromosomal integrity during carcinogenesis, this variant may also influence the therapy outcome in breast cancer.