Purpose: Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is a highly aggressive and fatal malignancy, although gemcitabine is administered as a sing
Purpose: Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is a highly aggressive and fatal malignancy, although gemcitabine is administered as a single or combined therapeutic agent. Our previous study demonstrated that ANP32E overexpression promoted PDAC cell proliferation. However, whether it affects treatment outcome and clinical prognosis is still unclear. In the present study, we aimed to determine whether ANP32E is negatively associated with the treatment outcome of gemcitabine. Methods: We collected clinical characteristics and treatment information from a total of 75 PDAC patients to assess the association of ANP32E expression via immunohistochemical (IHC) staining with overall survival (OS) in patients who were or were not treated with gemcitabine-based chemotherapy, followed by a clinical replication study with transcriptomic data from the TCGA database and functional validation experiments involving the knockdown of ANP32E in the Hup-T3 and SU86.86 human pancreatic cancer cell lines. Results: We demonstrated the interference effect of ANP32E on gemcitabine efficacy and patient prognosis in PDAC patients by using our own clinical samples or publicly available TCGA datasets. Downregulation of ANP32E significantly sensitized Hup-T3 and SU86.86 cells to gemcitabine, which was consistent with the results of the above association studies. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that ANP32E might serve as a negative biomarker for poor prognosis and a predictive indicator for poor gemcitabine efficacy. These findings suggest that ANP32E might be a potential therapeutic target to help develop effective drugs to overcome gemcitabine resistance and reduce the risk for relapse or metastasis in patients with PDAC.