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Updated: Apr 23, 2026
Author Spotlight: Unveiling Transmembrane Protein Family-Related Markers in Gastric Cancer and Implications for Targeted Therapies
Published on: September 15, 2023
Expression of galectin-3 in gastric adenocarcinoma
Thiago Simño Gomes, Celina Tizuko Fujiyama Oshima, Nora Manoukian Forones
1Department of Biosciences, Federal University of São Paulo, SP, Brazil.
Background & Objectives:
Galectin-3 a member of the galectin family is an endogenous β-galactoside binding lectin. It has been found to be associated with cell adhesion, recognition, proliferation, differentiation, immunomodulation, angiogenesis, apoptosis and can be a reliable marker for cancer aggressiveness. The aim of this study was to verify protein expression in gastric adenocarcinoma tissues and correlate the results with the clinical aspects in the study population.
Methods:
Galectin-3 expression was examined by immunohistochemistry in 57 samples of gastric adenocarcinomas tissues. Galectin-3 protein expression was observed in the cytoplasm and the nucleus of examined tissues.
Results:
Thirty one (54.4%) samples had strong or moderate staining and 26 (45.6%) tumours had negative or weak staining. The galectin-3 did not show association with the sex (p=0.347), age (p=0.999), Lauren's classification (p=0.731) and TNM stage (p=0.222). Regarding the TNM stage, 66.7 per cent of stage I tumours had strong or moderate staining; with tumours stage IV this percentage was 33.3 per cent.
Interpretation & Conclusion:
Our results suggest that gal-3 is not a reliable biomarker for prognosis of the gastric adenocarcinoma by immunohistochemistry. Further studies need to be done on a large sample of tumour tissues in different clinical staging.
