To determine whether the efficacy of Taxol chemotherapy in patients is related to the Asp132-cleavage of AURKA for apoptosis, we collected 18 primary tumor tissues from breast cancer patients who underwent Taxol-based neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) with response (Grade 5, sensitive to Taxol-based chemotherapy) or without response (Grade 2, insensitive to Taxol-based chemotherapy), followed by immunohistochemistry staining for cleaved caspase 3, EGR1 and Bax (a well-known pro-apoptotic protein related to EGR1). The gene discussed is AURKA; the disease is breast cancer.