NEUROG1 and medullary thyroid gland carcinoma: In addition, we evaluated the expression of Aurora kinase A (AKA) by western blot on 6 MTC patients (a small representative number of patients), 2 controls (healthy thyroid), and 1 patient with papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC), used as positive control (it has been reported to express elevated quantities of AKA [22]).