Study on association between the expression of galectin- 3 and the peritoneal metastasis in gastric cancer / 中华胃肠外科杂志

ABSTRACT

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the association between the expression of galectin- 3 protein and peritoneal metastasis in gastric cancer.</p><p><b>METHOD</b>The expressions of galectin- 3 was detected in matching- samples including primary gastric cancer lesions,lymph node metastases,peritoneal metastases and paratumor normal tissues by immunohistochemistry. All specimens were gained from 35 patients who had synchronous peritoneal metastasis from gastric cancer.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The over- expression of galectin- 3 was observed in 97% (34/35) of the gastric cancer lesions, the peritoneal metastases and the lymph node metastases,whereas in 14% (5/35) of paratumor normal tissues. There were significant differences in the expression of galectin- 3 between paratumor normal tissues and the gastric carcinoma lesions,peritoneal metastases and lymph node metastases (P< 0.05),but there were no significant differences among the gastric cancer lesions,the peritoneal metastases,and the lymph node metastases (P> 0.05).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The expression of galectin- 3 in gastric cancer lesions can be used as a biological marker of peritoneal metastasis from gastric cancer before operation and as a prognostic factor of gastric cancer.</p>