Galectin-1 overexpression in nasopharyngeal carcinoma: effect on survival

Galectin-1 overexpression is significantly correlated with the survival rate of patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). Immunohistochemical analysis of galectin-1 expression might be useful for identifying patients with a high risk of distant metastasis and for prompting timely adjuvant systemic therapy for patients with aggressive NPC.

We examined the effect of galectin-1 on the survival rate of patients with NPC.

A total of 124 patients diagnosed between 1998 and 2002 with NPC without distant metastasis were enrolled in this single-center historical prospective cohort study. Immunohistochemical analysis was used to correlate the galectin-1 expression score in the cytoplasm and the survival rate of patients with NPC.

Patients with NPC who overexpressed galectin-1 in cytoplasm showed more aggressive tumor growth and significantly shorter disease-specific survival (DSS) (p = 0.0037) and distant metastasis-free survival (DMFS) (p = 0.0006) than patients with NPC who did not overexpress galectin-1. Multivariate analysis showed that galectin-1 overexpression remained prognostically independent for DSS (p = 0.031, hazard ratio = 1.821), and DMFS (p = 0.005, hazard ratio = 2.417), together with the advanced III-IV stages.