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Prognostic Significance of Galectin-1 but Not Galectin-3 in Patients With Lung Adenocarcinoma After Radiation Therapy
Chun-Chieh Huang1,2, I-Chieh Chuang3, Yu-Li Su4
1Department of Radiation Oncology, Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital and Chang Gung University College of Medicine, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
Introduction:
To investigate the role of tumor galectin-1 and galectin-3 in patients with lung adenocarcinoma after definitive radiation therapy.
Methods:
A total of 41 patients with localized lung adenocarcinoma undergoing thoracic radiation therapy without concurrent chemotherapy were enrolled. Their paraffin-embedded lung tissues were sent for immunohistochemical staining for galectin-1 and galectin-3. The clinical treatment outcomes, including overall (OS), locoregional progression-free (LRPFS), and distant metastasis-free (DMFS) survivals, were evaluated. Univariable and multivariable Cox regression analyses were applied.
Results:
Overexpression of tumor galectin-1 and galectin-3 were found in 26.8% and 19.5% of patients, respectively. Overexpression of tumor galectin-1 was the most significant prognosticator to predict worse LRPFS in both univariable (p = 0.007) and multivariable analyses (p = 0.022). Besides, patients with overexpression of tumor galectin-1 had a trend of worse OS (p = 0.066) than those with low expression in multivariable analysis, and worse DMFS (p = 0.035) in univariable analysis. The overexpression of tumor galectin-3 had no significant effect on survival outcomes.
Conclusions:
The overexpression of tumor galectin-1, but not galectin-3, is associated with poor LRPFS of patients with lung adenocarcinoma after thoracic radiation therapy. Future research on the mechanism of galectin-1 affecting radiation response in lung adenocarcinoma may be worth exploring.

