High kinesin family member 18A expression correlates with poor prognosis in primary lung adenocarcinoma

BACKGROUND: Lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) is the most prevalent pathological subtype of lung cancer. Kinesin family member 18A (KIF18A) plays an important role in tumorigenesis. Its roles in breast cancer, colorectal cancer, and other tumors have been demonstrated; however, studies of KIF18A in LUAD are limited. This study aimed to determine the role of KIF18A in LUAD progression and prognostic prediction. METHODS: KIF18A expression was examined in LUAD cells and tissues by immunohistochemistry and Western blotting. Cell proliferation assay was performed to study the role of KIF18A in LUAD cells. Correlations between KIF18A expression and clinicopathological features were analyzed. The role of KIF18A in LUAD prognosis was evaluated using data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). RESULTS: KIF18A expression was increased in tumor cells and tissues. Downregulation of KIF18A expression resulted in the suppression of cancer cell proliferation in in vitro assays, and was particularly related to poor tumor differentiation, big tumor size, lymph node metastasis, and more advanced tumor stage. In the TCGA dataset, high KIF18A messenger RNA expression was associated with poor disease‐free and overall survival in patients with LUAD. In addition, multivariate analysis indicated that KIF18A is an independent prognostic factor of disease‐free and overall survival in LUAD. CONCLUSIONS: Collectively, our results demonstrate that KIFl8A is highly expressed in LUAD. KIFl8A plays an important role in LUAD cell proliferation, but is a poor prognostic factor.