Abstract: Objective To investigate the expression of sirtuin 4(SIRT4) in gastric cancer tissues and its association with clinicopathological characteristics and prognosis of gastric cancer patients. Methods A total of 117 clinical data of gastric cancer patients who underwent surgery in the Central Hospital of Wuhan from October 2013 to October 2014 were retrospectively analyzed. The expression of SIRT4 protein in gastric cancer tissues and its paracancerous tissues were detected by immunohistochemistry, and the associations with SIRT4 expression level and the clinicopathological characteristics and prognosis of gastric cancer patients were analyzed. Results The expression level of SIRT4 protein in gastric cancer tissues was lower than that in paracancerous tissues［(2.138±1.306) points vs (9.582±3.243) points, t=19.078, P<0.001］, and the expression of SIRT4 protein was significantly correlated with the tumor differentiation, tumor invasion, lymph node metastasis, lymphovascular invasion, perineural invasion, and TNM stage(all P<0.05). The overall survival rate of SIRT4 low expression group was significantly lower than that of SIRT4 high expression group(P=0.001). Multivariable Cox analysis showed that SIRT4 protein low expression was an independent risk factor affecting the overall survival of gastric cancer patients(HR=2.241, 95%CI:1.252-4.165, P=0.021). Conclusion SIRT4 is lowly expressed in gastric cancer tissues and associated with poor prognosis of gastric cancer patients, which may be a potential prognostic evaluation marker for gastric cancer patients.

Key words: Gastric cancer, SIRT4, Clinicopathological characteristics, Prognosis