Establishment and validation of Lactate Metabolism-Related genes as a prognostic model for gastric cancer

Abstract

Gastric cancer has become a prominent research focus due to its role of cancer-related deaths in the worldwide in recent years, especially for advanced gastric cancer for which surgical resection is the only truly effective treatment. However, patients with gastric cancer have a high rate of postoperative recurrence and metastasis. Therefore, studying the mechanisms of gastric cancer development and metastasis, finding diagnostic markers and therapeutic targets has become a hot research topic nowadays. Lactate has long been considered as a metabolic byproduct of aerobic glycolysis in cancer, and an increasing number of studies have shown that lactate can regulate tumor growth through various mechanisms, such as cell cycle regulation, immunosuppression, and energy metabolism. The recent discovery of lactic acidification has attracted much attention and has become one of the hot topics in the field of cancer. Yet, the roles of lactate metabolism-related genes (LMRs) in gastric cancer remains unknown. Accordingly, we aimed to develop a unique lactate-related signal to predict the prognosis of gastric cancer patients, and such LMRs could guide clinicians to make more precise and personalized treatments for gastric cancer patients.