The GALNT14 Genotype Predicts Postoperative Outcome of Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDA) is notorious for its poor prognosis. The current mainstay of treatment for PDA is surgical resection followed by adjuvant chemotherapy. However, it is difficult to predict the post-operative outcome because of the lack of reliable markers. The single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) of N-acetylgalactosaminyltransferase14 (GALNT14) has been proven to predict the progression-free survival (PFS), overall survival (OS) and response to chemotherapy in various types of gastrointestinal (GI) cancers. However, its role in PDA has not been studied. This study aims to investigate whether the GALNT14 SNP genotype can be a prognostic marker for PDA. A cohort of one hundred and three PDA patients having received surgical resection were retrospectively enrolled. GALNT14 genotypes and the clinicopathological parameters were correlated with postoperative prognosis. The genotype analysis revealed that 19.4%, 60.2% and 20.4% of patients had the GALNT14 TT, TG and GG genotypes, respectively. The patients with the GG genotype had a mean OS time of 37.1 months (95% confidence interval [CI]: 18.2-56.1) and those with the non-GG genotype had a mean OS time of 16.1 months (95% CI: 13.1-19.2). Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that the GG genotype had a significantly better OS compared to the non-GG genotype (p = 0.005). However, there was no significant difference between the GG and non-GG genotypes in PFS (p = 0.172). The baseline characteristics between patients with the GG and non-GG genotypes were compared, and no significant difference was found. Univariate followed by multivariate Cox proportional hazard models demonstrated the GALNT14 GG genotype, negative resection margin, and locoregional disease as independent predictors for favorable OS (p = 0.003, p = 0.037, p = 0.021, respectively). Sensitivity analysis was performed in each subgroup to examine the relationship of GALNT14 with different clinicopathological variables and no heterogeneity was found. The GALNT14 GG genotype is associated with favorable survival outcome, especially OS, in patients with resected PDA and could serve as a prognostic marker.