A STUDY OF IMMUNOHISTOCHEMICAL EXPRESSION OF GALECTIN-3 IN NON-NEOPLASTIC AND NEOPLASTIC LESIONS OF THYROID

Introduction: Thyroid lesions are fairly common and have a wide spectrum of diseases ranging from functional, immune mediated to neoplastic lesions. Malignancy of thyroid constitutes approximately 1% of all cancers. These malignant tumors of thyroid gland exhibit a variety of histopathologies and clinical behavior. Immune markers are gaining more and more importance in diagnostic pathology, especially in the differential diagnostics and in the grading of thyroid gland tumors. In the recent times Galectin-3 has received notable recognition for its usefulness as a diagnostic marker for thyroid cancer. To evaluate the diagnostic role of galectin-3 (Gal-3) in Aims and objectives: differentiating malignant from benign thyroid neoplasm. In this observational study, we evaluated Gal-Material and method: 3 expression in a spectrum of all non-neoplastic and neoplastic lesions including benign and malignant lesions of thyroid gland. All types of thyroidectomy specimens were xed in 10% formal saline and subjected to histopathological examination. Sections were stained with H&E stain. Gal-3 immunoperoxidase reaction was carried out in histological sections from all the cases and descriptive analysis was done. In the study of 100 cases of thyroid swelling were included and evaluated by Result: histopathological and by using Gal-3 immunoperoxidase marker. Out of 100 cases, majority of thyroid lesions were seen in females with 76 cases (76%) while only 24 cases (24%) were seen in male. Among 66 non-neoplastic cases, only 6 cases (9.1%) and among 34 neoplastic lesions, 28 cases (82.4%) were positive for galectin-3 marker. Statistical signicance of galectin-3 expression between non-neoplastic and neoplastic thyroid lesions found to be statistically signicant (P value <0000.1). The sensitivity and specicity of galectin-3 detection of malignant lesions were found to be 82.4% and 91% respectively with 82.4% positive predictive value and 90.9% negative predictive value. We suggest that Galectin-3 expression is helpful in Conclusion: enabling better diagnosis and patient care by guiding appropriate therapeutic decisions.