An Exploratory Integrative Analysis of Plasma Transcriptomic and Proteomic Predictors of Response to Total Neoadjuvant Therapy in Locally Advanced Rectal Cancer

Pre-treatment plasma RNA sequencing and functional annotation were performed in six patients with LARC (three pCR and three non-pCR) to identify differentially expressed genes (DEGs) associated with TNT response. Compared to the non-pCR group, 365 DEGs were upregulated, and 198 were downregulated in the pCR group.

These genes are involved in pathways related to cell growth and death, signal transduction, metabolism, the immune system, insulin secretion, mitophagy, and neutrophil extracellular trap formation.