Aberrant kinesin family member 2A signifies tumor size and invasion, and may help predict prognosis of patients with papillary thyroid carcinoma

Kinesin family member 2A (KIF2A) has been reported as an oncogene and potential biomarker for the progression of numerous cancer types; however, its role in papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) has remained elusive. The present study aimed to assess KIF2A expression in patients with PTC and explore the potential association between KIF2A, clinicopathological features and the prognosis of PTC. A total of 200 patients with PTC who received surgical resection were retrospectively reviewed. KIF2A expression was detected using immunohistochemistry (IHC) in 200 pairs of carcinoma/para-carcinoma tissues and using reverse transcription-quantitative PCR in 91 pairs of carcinoma/para-carcinoma tissues. Clinical and pathological data, disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) rates of all patients were obtained. The results of the present study demonstrated that KIF2A protein and mRNA expression were both elevated in carcinoma tissues compared with those in para-carcinoma tissues. KIF2A protein expression in carcinoma tissues was positively associated with increased tumor size and a higher pathologic tumor-nodes-metastasis (pTNM) stage. However, KIF2A mRNA expression in carcinoma tissues was only associated with an increased pTNM stage and not with any other clinicopathological features. In addition, high levels of KIF2A protein expression in carcinoma tissues led to a poor predicted DFS, but were not associated with OS. Following adjustments using a multivariate Cox regression model, high KIF2A protein expression levels were indicated to be independently associated with a decreased DFS. In conclusion, aberrant KIF2A signifies tumor size and invasion, and may help to predict prognosis in patients with PTC.