Abstract 7069: NEK2 is frequently upregulated in esophageal adenocarcinoma associating with poor prognosis

Abstract Esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC) has become a significant clinical challenge due to rapid increase in the incidence during the past four decades in the USA and Western countries. However, the prognosis of EAC patients is still poor with 5-year overall survival rate about 20%. There is an urgent need to identify novel therapeutic targets associated with EAC biology. NEK2 is the first identified human NEK (Never in mitosis A (NIMA) related kinase) gene among the 11 serine/threonine kinases family. Aberrant NEK2 expression is reported in a variety of human cancers and plays important roles in tumorigenesis, progression, and drug-resistance. However, the expression of the NEK2 in EAC and its precancerous condition (Barrett’s esophagus, BE) has not been investigated. Using bioinformatic approaches, we first analyzed the TCGA and 9 GEO databases (a total of 10 databases in which eight contain EAC and 6 contain BE) and found that NEK2 was significantly upregulated in EAC as compared to normal esophagus in 7 of the 8 databases. Meanwhile, genomic alterations of NEK2 are only found in 1.2% of EAC. We validated the overexpression of NEK2 using qRT-PCR, western blotting, immunohistochemistry in EAC cell lines and in primary EAC tissues. Functionally, we demonstrated that overexpression of NEK2 in EAC cells promoted tumor cell growth. Targeting NEK2 in EAC cells significantly inhibited EAC tumor growth. Our data suggests that frequent overexpression of NEK2 plays an important role in EAC. Citation Format: Lei Chen, Heng Lu, Farah Ballout, Tianling Hu, Zheng Chen, Dunfa Peng. NEK2 is frequently upregulated in esophageal adenocarcinoma associating with poor prognosis [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2024; Part 1 (Regular Abstracts); 2024 Apr 5-10; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2024;84(6_Suppl):Abstract nr 7069.