Bioinformatics analysis identifies AURKB as a prognostic biomarker across multiple human cancers

Q: What was the objective of the study on AURKB?

To examine how AURKB expression, epigenetic regulation, and immune cell infiltration relate to its potential as a prognostic biomarker across cancers.

Q: Which datasets and analyses were used to assess AURKB?

The study integrated transcriptomic and clinical data from TCGA, HPA, and CCLE, assessing expression and prognosis with Cox regression and Kaplan–Meier, methylation with UALCAN, immune infiltration with TIMER2 and CIBERSORT, and functional enrichment with KEGG/GO plus drug sensitivity correlations using GDSC and CTRP.

Q: What main results connect AURKB to prognosis?

AURKB was significantly overexpressed in multiple malignancies, and higher expression correlated with advanced clinical stages and worse survival outcomes (OS, DFS, PFI, DSS), along with diagnostic potential in ROC analysis.

Sep 22, 2026

Upload by Jiven

Aurora kinase B (AURKB) regulates cell division and has been linked to unfavorable outcomes in certain cancers, yet its pan-cancer role remains unclear. This study investigates how AURKB expression, epigenetic regulation, and immune cell infiltration relate to prognostic value. Transcriptomic and clinical data from TCGA, HPA, and CCLE are integrated using survival Cox regression and Kaplan–Meier analyses, promoter methylation evaluation, immune infiltration estimation, and functional/drug-sensitivity enrichment. Results show AURKB overexpression associates with advanced stage, reduced OS/DFS/PI/DSS, hypomethylation, immune suppression, and drug resistance.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages27

Reading Time1 h 8 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Background

Objective

Methods

Results

Conclusion

Keywords

Introduction

Xie et al. Discover Oncology (2026) 17:51 [https://doi.org/10.1007/s12672-025-04105-7](https://doi.org/10.1007/s12672-025-04105-7) Discover Oncology RESEARCH Open Access Bioinformatics analysis identifies AURKB as a prognostic biomarker across multiple human cancers Haomin Xie2†, Aibing Wu1†, Meiqiang Xie1†, Sicheng Chen3†, Yuexun Huang4, Haolin Wen5, He Li6, Zhenyang Fu7 and Wentao Zheng1* †Haomin Xie, Aibing Wu, Meiqiang Xie and Sicheng Chen have contributed equally to this work and should be considered co-first authors. *Correspondence: Wentao Zheng [zhengwentao1984@163.com](zhengwentao1984@163.com) Full list of author information is available at the end of the article Abstract Background Cancer is a major global health issue. Aurora kinase B (AURKB) is known to regulate cell division and linked to poor prognosis in some cancers, but its role across all cancer types is unclear. Objective The goal of this study is to examine how AURKB expression, epigenetic regulation, and immune cell infiltration relate to its potential as a prognostic biomarker. Methods We conducted a comprehensive analysis of transcriptomic and clinical data from TCGA, HPA, and CCLE to assess AURKB expression in various cancers. RNA-seq data processing involved TCGAbiolinks, normalization toTPM, and filtering based on the completeness of survival data and sequencing quality. The maxstat method was used to categorize groups into high and low expression. The prognostic significance was evaluated using Cox regression and Kaplan–Meier analysis for OS, DFS, PFI, and DSS. UALCAN was used to analyze promoter methylation, and immune infiltration was assessed with TIMER2 and CIBERSORT. Using the GDSC and CTRP datasets, researchers carried out functional enrichment (KEGG, GO) and examined drug sensitivity correlations. With more than 11,000 cases, the sample size provided enough statistical power. Results AURKB was found to be significantly overexpressed in multiple malignancies, including breast (BRCA), liver (LIHC), kidney (KIRP), and lung (LUAD) cancers, with high expression linked to advanced clinical stages and poorer prognosis. Elevated AURKB levels were associated with significantly reduced OS, DFS, PFI and DSS, particularly in cancers like KIRP (HR = 2.04 for OS, p < 4. 2e-10) . ROC analysis demonstrated the high diagnostic potential of AURKB, with Area Under the Curve (AUC) values of 1.000 for CHOL and GBM, indicating strong sensitivity and specificity. Additionally, AURKB overexpression was often accompanied by promoter hypomethylation, suggesting an epigenetic mechanism underlying its dysregulation. Immune infiltration analysis revealed that increased AURKB expression correlated with reduced CD8 + T cell infiltration and enhanced immune suppression, particularly in aggressive subtypes. Drug sensitivity analysis showed a negative correlation between AURKB expression and © The Author(s) 2026. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which permits any non-commercial use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if you modified the licensed material. You do not have permission under this licence to share adapted material derived from this article or parts of it. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit [http://creativecommons.org/l](http://creativecommons.org/l)icenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/. X

FAQs

What was the objective of the study on AURKB?

To examine how AURKB expression, epigenetic regulation, and immune cell infiltration relate to its potential as a prognostic biomarker across cancers.

Which datasets and analyses were used to assess AURKB?

The study integrated transcriptomic and clinical data from TCGA, HPA, and CCLE, assessing expression and prognosis with Cox regression and Kaplan–Meier, methylation with UALCAN, immune infiltration with TIMER2 and CIBERSORT, and functional enrichment with KEGG/GO plus drug sensitivity correlations using GDSC and CTRP.

What main results connect AURKB to prognosis?

AURKB was significantly overexpressed in multiple malignancies, and higher expression correlated with advanced clinical stages and worse survival outcomes (OS, DFS, PFI, DSS), along with diagnostic potential in ROC analysis.

Sep 22, 2026

Upload by Jiven