Aurora-A (Aur-A), a member of the serine/threonine Aurora kinase family, plays an important role in ensuring genetic stability during cell division. Previous studies indicated that Aur-A possesses oncogenic activity and may be a valuable therapeutic target in cancer therapy. However, the role of Aur-A in the most common thyroid cancer, papillary thyroid cancer (PTC), remains largely unknown. In patients with PTC, cancer cell migration and invasion account for most of the metastasis, recurrence, and cancer related deaths. Cofilin-1 (CFL-1) is the most important effector of actin polymerization and depolymerization, determining the direction of cell migration. Here, we assessed the correlation between Aur-A and CFL-1 in PTC with lymph node metastasis. Tissue microarray data showed that simultaneous overexpression of Aur-A and CFL-1 correlated with lymph node metastasis in thyroid cancer tissue. Inhibition of Aur-A suppressed thyroid cancer cell migration in vitro and decreased lymph node metastasis in nude mice. Importantly, Aur-A increased the non-phosphorylated, active form of CFL-1 in TPC-1 cells, thus promoting cancer cell migration and thyroid cancer lymph node metastasis. Our findings indicate that the combination of Aur-A and CFL-1 may be useful as a molecular prediction model for lymph node metastasis in thyroid cancer and raise the possibility of targeting Aur-A and CFL-1 for more effective treatment of thyroid cancer. (C) 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.