I-kappa-B kinase e (IKBKE; IKK) has been recently identified as a breast cancer oncogene, and its alteration appears to be an early event in breast cancer development. In this study, we demonstrated that IKK is frequently overexpressed and activated in human ovarian cancer cell lines and primary tumors. Of 96 ovarian cancer specimens examined, 63 exhibited elevated levels of IKK. Furthermore, alterations of IKK were associated with late-stage and highgrade tumors, suggesting a role of IKK in ovarian tumor progression rather than in tumor initiation. Overall survival in patients with elevated levels of IKK was significantly lower than patients whose tumors expressed normal levels of IKK. Moreover, both early and late-stage tumors that overexpressed IKK conferred a poor prognosis, as compared with those that did not possess elevated IKK levels. Notably, overexpression of IKK rendered cells resistant to cisplatin, whereas knockdown of IKK overcame cisplatin resistance in both A2780CP and C13 cells, which express high levels of endogenous IKK. Therefore, these data demonstrate for the first time that deregulation of IKK is a highly recurrent event in human ovarian cancer and could play a pivotal role in tumor progression and cisplatin resistance. IKK could also serve as a prognostic marker and potential therapeutic target for this malignancy. The I-kappa-B kinase (IKK), also named IKBKE/IKKi, is a serine/threonine protein kinase that belongs to the IKK family. The IKK protein has 33% and 31% identity at the amino acid level with IKK␣ and IKK, respectively, is primarily activated by interferon and mediates interferon signaling.1,2 The activated IKK stimulates the transcription factor interferon regulatory factors 3 and phosphorylates signal transducer and activator of transcription 1,3,4 IKK also shares some function with IKK␣ and IKK to activate nuclear factor (NF)B pathway by phosphorylation and degradation of IB␣.5-7 However, IKK mainly mediates NFB activation induced by interferon, phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate or the T-cell receptor, but not by tumor necrosis factor and interleukin 1, which activate IKK␣ and IKK.Previous studies have revealed an important role for IKK␣ and IKK in tumorigenesis via regulation of various signal transduction pathways. 8 -11 Using complementary genetic approaches, Boehm and colleagues recently identified IKK as a breast cancer oncogene by dissecting the downstream pathways sufficient for RAS to induce neoplastic transformation. Although RAS can stimulate many pathways, such as the mitogen-activated protein kinase, phosphoinositide 3 kinase, and ral guanine nucleotide dissociation stimulator signaling pathways, a fullblown transformation phenotype of immortalized human cells could be acquired only by the simultaneous expression of constitutively activated mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase together with a myristoylated AKT. Further, by screening a myristoylated kinase expression library for kinases that act in the place of AKT in the RAS-AKT pathway to promote cellular tr...