Serum and glucocorticoid-regulated kinase 1 (SGK1) is a predictor of poor prognosis in non-small cell lung cancer, and its dynamic pattern following treatment with SGK1 inhibitor and γ-ray irradiation was elucidated.

The tumor suppressor gene p53 and its dynamic patterns have caused widespread attention in the field of cancer research. Serum and glucocorticoid-regulated kinase 1 (SGK1) with features of serine/threonine kinase activity, which also contributes to the structural and functional similarities with the AKT family of kinases, is a key enzyme in the regulation of immune responses in tumor cells, and SGK1 was noted to be expressed in close relation to p53 protein levels, and there exists a negative feedback pathway between intracellular SGK1 and p53. Noteworthy, SGK1 was detected to play a role in the development of resistance to cancer chemotherapy. In this study, we demonstrated that high SGK1 expression had strong prognostic value for reduced overall survival in NSCLC patients. Detection of SGK1 collectively was helpful to predict the prognosis of NSCLC. We also identified the expression level of SGK1 and the p53 pathway including downstream apoptotic proteins under the stimulation of γ-radiation and SGK1 inhibitor GSK650394, which presented a series of dynamic fluctuations. Our results suggest that SGK1 dynamics could play an important role in cell signaling, which is capable of directly influencing NSCLC cellular fate decisions.