hENT1’s role in adjuvant intra-arterial gemcitabine-based chemotherapy for resectable pancreatic cancer patients

BACKGROUND: We aimed to verify the role of hENT1 as a prognostic predictor for patients with resectable pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) who underwent radical resection followed by intra-arterial infusion of gemcitabine-based regimen. METHODS: We collected surgical samples from 102 patients with resectable PDAC who received radical resection followed by intra-arterial infusion of gemcitabine-based regimen. The hENT1 expression with the help of immunohistochemistry was conducted using formalin-fixed and paraffin embedded tissues. The Kaplan–Meier analyses and Cox regression were used to evaluate the mortality hazard associated with the discrepancy between strong and weak of hENT1 expression. Patients’ clinical and pathological characteristics were compared between the two groups, then the role of hENT1 as a prognostic predictor was further explored. RESULTS: A total of 102 patients were included to assess the hENT1 expression. 50 patients were classified into high hENT1 expression group, the other 52 patients were attributed into low hENT1 expression group. High hENT1 expression was related to a significantly improved overall survival (OS) (p = 0.014) and disease-free survival (DFS) (p = 0.004). Both univariate (p = 0.001) and multivariate analyses (p < 0.001) indicated that high hENT1 expression was related to a decreased mortality. CONCLUSIONS: High expression of hENT1 is positive prognostic factor for adjuvant intra-arterial gemcitabine-based chemotherapy in resectable PDAC.