TY - JOUR T1 - Reduced Galectin-3 Expression is an Indicator of Unfavorable Prognosis in Gastric Cancer JF - Anticancer Research JO - Anticancer Res SP - 1369 LP - 1376 VL - 26 IS - 2B AU - KOHJI OKADA AU - TATSUO SHIMURA AU - TAKETOSHI SUEHIRO AU - ERITO MOCHIKI AU - HIROYUKI KUWANO Y1 - 2006/03/01 UR - http://ar.iiarjournals.org/content/26/2B/1369.abstract N2 - Background: Galectin-3 (gal-3) participates in a variety of biological events, including cell adhesion, proliferation, differentiation and apoptosis. The aim of this study was to determine the relationship of gal-3 expression with clinicopathological findings and prognosis in patients with gastric cancer. Patients and Methods: Gal-3 and Ki-67 expressions were assessed by immunohistochemistry in 115 patients with gastric cancer. PCR-single strand conformation polymorphism (SSCP)-sequence analysis and the levels of gal-3 mRNA were also examined. Results: The present study demonstrated that gal-3 expression was correlated with nodal status, lymphatic invasion, pathological stage and histological parameters. On the other hand, gal-3 expression did not correlate with the expression of Ki-67. Reduced expression of gal-3 was significantly associated with a poor prognosis and multivariate analysis showed that gal-3 expression was an independent prognostic factor. On PCR-SSCP-sequence analysis, 2 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were detected in the gal-3 gene, but none showed mutations. Conclusion: Reduced gal-3 expression was associated with lymph node metastasis, advanced stage and tumor differentiation in gastric cancer. Gal-3 expression could be a useful prognostic factor in gastric cancer. Copyright© 2006 International Institute of Anticancer Research (Dr. John G. Delinassios), All rights reserved ER -