Abstract
Aurora family of protein kinases have emerged as crucial factors of, not only mitosis and cytokinesis, but also human carcinogenesis. Among these family members is Aurora-A that is frequently overexpressed in varieties of human cancer. Both in vitro and in vivo studies demonstrated that Aurora-A induces tumorigenesis through genome instability. These studies have further shown that cell signaling cross-talk between Aurora-A and other cellular proteins are essential for fully-transformed phenotypes. This review summarizes recent progress of Aurora-A-associated carcinogenesis.