  Prompt photon production in hadronic collisions at the RHIC and the LHC
energies is investigated within the QCD color dipole approach. Predictions for
the nuclear modification factor in $pA$ collisions are evaluated based on
parton saturation framework and the results are compared to the experimental
measurements as a function of the photon transverse momentum at different
rapidity bins. The reliability of the models is performed with the data from
PHENIX, ATLAS, and ALICE Collaborations. Moreover, we show that the observed
$x_T$-scaling of prompt photon production in $pp$ and $pA$ collisions can
positively be addressed in the QCD color dipole formalism.
