The expression of PRMT5 is associated with postoperative chemotherapeutic outcome in colon cancer

Postoperative chemotherapy is an essential treatment in locally advanced colon cancer, however, effective biomarkers for predicting patients who will benefit from this therapy are lacking. This study aims to explore the clinical value of protein arginine methyltransferase 5 (PRMT5) in guiding adjuvant chemotherapy in patients with colon cancer.

PRMT5 expression was determined via immunohistochemistry (IHC) in tumor and paratumor samples from 199 colon cancer patients who underwent radical surgery. The correlation between PRMT5 expression and clinicopathological parameters, as well as clinical outcomes, was subsequently investigated.

The protein expression levels of PRMT5 were significantly elevated in colon cancer tissues compared to paratumor tissues (P < 0.01). However, the expression of PRMT5 in colon cancer did not show a significant association with various clinicopathological parameters, including sex, age, tumor location, histological differentiation, TNM stage, vascular invasion, or microsatellite status. Notably, a strong correlation was observed between PRMT5 expression and adjuvant therapeutic outcomes: patients with high PRMT5 expression exhibited a lower 5-year disease-free survival (DFS) rate compared to those with low PRMT5 expression within the chemotherapy group (50% vs. 67.2%, P = 0.039). In contrast, PRMT5 expression did not correlate with clinical outcomes in the non-chemotherapy group. Furthermore, multivariate analysis indicated that PRMT5 expression, along with N stage and microsatellite status, served as independent risk factors for 5-year DFS in patients undergoing adjuvant chemotherapy.

This study highlights PRMT5 as a prognostic marker for adjuvant chemotherapy in patients with colon cancer. The findings suggest that PRMT5 expression may serve as an important predictor of therapeutic outcomes, providing valuable insights for clinical decision-making and personalized treatment strategies.