By multi-factor correlation regression analysis, it was found that low GOLPH3 expression was significantly associated with TRG (OR = 3.952; CI 1.655–10.327, P = 0.026) and tumor down-staging (OR = 2.951; CI 1.523–11.324, P = 0.021), suggesting GOLPH3 could independently predict sensitivity to nCRT in rectal cancer, with high sensitivity in the low expression group. The gene discussed is GOLPH3; the disease is rectal cancer.