title: Phosphoglycerate dehydrogenase is a novel predictor for poor prognosis in gastric cancer.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Phosphoglycerate dehydrogenase (PHGDH) acts as a key metabolic enzyme in the rate-limiting step in serine biosynthesis and plays an important role in metastasis of several cancers. The aim of this study was to investigate the prognostic value of PHGDH in gastric cancer (GC).
  
  
  METHODS
  The messenger RNA expression of PHGDH was determined in 20 pairs of cancerous and adjacent nontumor tissues by real-time polymerase chain reaction. Immunohistochemistry of PHGDH was performed on tissue microarray, composed of 482 GC and 64 matched adjacent nontumor tissues acquired from surgery, 20 chronic gastritis, 18 intestinal metaplasia, and 31 low-grade and 66 high-grade intraepithelial neoplasias acquired through gastric endoscopic biopsy. Univariate and multivariate Cox proportional hazard models were used to perform survival analyses.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Both PHGDH messenger RNA and protein product exhibited GC tissue-preferred expression, when compared with benign tissues. The high PHGDH expression was significantly correlated with histological type (P=0.011), tumor stage (P=0.014), and preoperative carcinoembryonic antigen (P<0.001). A negative correlation was found between PHGDH expression and the 5-year survival rate of patients with GC. Furthermore, multivariate analysis indicated that PHGDH was an independent prognostic factor for outcome in GC.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  PHGDH is important in predicting patient outcomes and is a potential target for the development of therapeutic approaches to GC.
authors.affiliation: School of Public Health, Nantong University.
authors.forename: Yun
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Xian
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology.
authors.forename: Shu
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Laboratory Medicine.
authors.forename: Xudong
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology.
authors.forename: Jin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Qin
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of General Surgery, Affiliated Hospital of Nantong University, Nantong, Jiangsu, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Han
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wu
keywords: gastric cancer; metabolism; prognosis; serine biosynthesis