AIB1 predicts tumor response to definitive chemoradiotherapy and prognosis in cervical squamous cell carcinoma

Amplified in breast cancer 1 (AIB1) gene, has been reported to be associated with biological malignancy in several cancers. However, the molecular status of the AIB1 gene in cervical cancer and the clinicopathological/prognostic significance of AIB1 expression in chemoradiotherapy (CRT) sensitivity have not been determined. In our present study, we found that the high expression of AIB1 was frequent detected in specimens of cervical cancer patients, and this was significantly correlated with CRT response (P = 0.014), clinical stage (P = 0.003), T status (P = 0.027), N status (P = 0.021), M status (P = 0.015) and progression-free survival (P < 0.001). Moreover, the clonogenic survival fraction and cell apoptosis experiments showed that knockdown of AIB1 substantially increased cervical cancer cells sensitivity to ionizing radiation (IR) or cisplatin/5-fluorouracil. Collectively, our results demonstrated that the high expression of AIB1 in cervical cancer cells contributes to the resistance to CRT, which provides the evidence that AIB1 may be a promising predictor of aggressive cervical cancer patients with poor response to CRT.