Expression profiling of cancer-related galectins in acute myeloid leukemia

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is the most common type of leukemia in adults with the lowest survival rate of all the leukemias. It is a heterogeneous disease in which a variety of cytogenetic and molecular alterations have been identified. Some galectins were previously reported to have important roles in cancer-like neoplastic transformation, tumor cell survival, angiogenesis, and tumor metastasis. Previous studies have showed that some galectin family members play a role in various types of leukemia. The present study aims at evaluating and clarifying the diagnostic and prognostic value of the expression of cancer-related galectins in relation to the clinicopathological characters of AML patients. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) was used to detect expression profile of eight galectin family members (galectin-1, -2, -3, -4, -8, -9, -12, and -13) in 53 newly diagnosed de novo AML patients. The samples were collected from the inpatient clinic at National Cancer Institute (NCI), Cairo University (CU), diagnosed between July 2012 and May 2013. Our results show that patients with lower LGALS12 gene expression have a lower overall survival than those with higher expression (P value <0.026). Moreover, a statistically significant association between the LGALS4 gene expression and patient age is found. Hence, the higher expression of LGALS4 gene is associated with younger age (adjusted P value <0.001). In conclusion, galectin-12 may be a potential prognostic marker for AML.