ATP citrate lyase expression is associated with advanced stage and prognosis in gastric adenocarcinoma.

Gastric adenocarcinoma (GA) is one of the most common cancer worldwide. ATP citrate lyase (ACLY) is generally recognized as a key enzyme of de novo fatty acid synthesis responsible for generation of oxaloacetate and cytosolic acetyl-CoA. This study aimed to investigate the expression level of ACLY in GA and evaluate the relationship between ACLY expression and the prognosis of GA patients. Paraffin archived samples from 83 GA patients were used to analyze ACLY expression by immunohistochemistry. ACLY was significantly upregulated in GA tissues compared with adjacent normal tissues (P < 0.001). High ACLY expression was correlated with advanced stages (P = 0.007) and lymph node metastasis (P = 0.022). Furthermore, patients with low ACLY expression had longer survival time than those with high ACLY expression (P = 0.031). In conclusion, these results indicate that ACLY might serve as a biomarker to predict the progression and prognosis of GA patients.