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Clinicopathological Significance of Galectin-3 Expression in Ductal Adenocarcinoma of the Pancreas¹

Pathology Division [T. S., M. S., Y. I., S. H.] and Cancer Information and Epidemiology Division [Y. S.], National Cancer Center Research Institute, Tokyo 104-0045; Department of Surgery, National Cancer Center Hospital, Tokyo 104-0045 [K. S., T. K.]; and Third Department of Internal Medicine, Yokohama City University, Yokohama 236-0004 [K. T., H. S.], Japan

Purpose: Galectin-3, a member of the ß-galactoside-binding lectin family, has multiple biological functions including cell-cell interactions and cell-extracellular matrix adhesion, cellular proliferation, cellular differentiation, and apoptosis. The aim of this study was to determine the relationship of galectin-3 expression to clinicopathological findings and patient prognosis in ductal adenocarcinoma of the pancreas.

Experimental Design: We examined galectin-3 expression in 104 surgically resected pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma cases with stages I through IV using immunohistochemistry and investigated the relationship of it to overall survival.

Results: Patients were divided into two groups: a low expression group, where <60% of tumor cells were positive; and a high expression group, where 60% of tumor cells were positive. Cases in the low expression group had a significant tendency to be at later stages, to have distant metastasis, and to have less differentiated tumors, compared with cases in the high expression group (P = 0.001 for stage, P = 0.001 for metastasis, and P = 0.006 for differentiation). Postoperative overall survival was worse in the low galectin-3 expression group than in the high galectin-3 expression group (P = 0.004). Multivariate analysis showed that the risk ratio of prognosis was 2.06 among patients in the low galectin-3 expression group compared with the high galectin-3 expression group (P = 0.006).

Conclusions: Decreased expression of galectin-3 was associated with advanced stage, tumor de-differentiation, and metastasis in ductal adenocarcinoma of the pancreas. Galectin-3 expression might be a useful prognostic marker for survival in ductal adenocarcinoma of the pancreas.