Abstract 3115: Characterization of CDCA1 protein as a novel prognostic biomarker and therapeutic target for oral cancer

Oral cavity carcinoma (OCC) is one of the most common causes of cancer-related death worldwide. Current therapies for OCC still show poor clinical outcome with five-year survival rate of less than 63%. Therefore, next generation biomarkers and therapeutic strategies for OCC are eagerly awaited. We selected genes that were specifically overexpressed in the majority of OCC using our gene expression profile database, and identified cell division cycle associated 1 (CDCA1) that appeared to encode nuclear protein as a candidate. Immunohistochemical analysis using tissue microarray covering 99 OCC tissues detected that CDCA1 protein was expressed in 67 cases of 99 OCC tissues (68%), but not in normal oral epithelia. In addition, high levels of CDCA1 protein expression was significantly associated with poor prognosis for OCC patients (P = 0.0244 by log-rank test). Furthermore, knockdown of CDCA1 expression by siRNAs significantly inhibited the growth of tumor cells. Moreover, flow cytometric analysis, multiple apoptosis assays, and live cell imaging experiment revealed that CDCA1 could be important for the growth and survival of OCC cells, probably through the regulation of mitotic prophase and/or apoptosis. Our findings suggest that CDCA1 is likely to be a novel prognostic biomarker and a therapeutic target for OCC patients. Citation Format: Thang Manh Phung, Atsushi Takano, Yoshihiro Yoshitake, Masanori Shinohara, Yoshinori Murakami, Yataro Daigo. Characterization of CDCA1 protein as a novel prognostic biomarker and therapeutic target for oral cancer [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2017; 2017 Apr 1-5; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2017;77(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 3115. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2017-3115