Low KIF4A expression is associated with gastric cancer progression and aggressive phenotypes

Kinesin family member 4A (KIF4A) regulates chromosome condensation and segregation during mitosis and is upregulated as an oncogene in various malignancies. However, its role in gastric cancer (GC) remains unclear. Therefore, this study aims to evaluate the clinicopathological and prognostic significance of KIF4A expression in GC. KIF4A protein expression was assessed via immunohistochemistry and quantified using QuPath-based digital image analysis. KIF4A expression was analyzed for its associations with clinicopathological and molecular characteristics, as well as its prognostic significance. Additionally, bioinformatics tools were used to confirm the prognostic value of KIF4A at the mRNA level and perform enrichment and comprehensive immune analyses. Low KIF4A expression was significantly associated with adverse clinicopathological features and inversely correlated with HER2 amplification. Survival analysis revealed that patients with low KIF4A expression had poor clinical outcomes, consistent with mRNA-level analyses from publicly available databases. Univariate Cox regression revealed low KIF4A expression as a significant prognostic factor. However, low KIF4A expression was no longer significant in multivariate analysis. In enrichment analysis, low KIF4A expression is associated with EMT activation, whereas high expression correlates with E2F-mediated proliferation. Although high KIF4A expression suggests an immune-inflamed phenotype, its predictive ability was limited in an independent validation cohort.