Galectin-3在非小细胞肺癌患者血清中的表达及其临床意义

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Lung cancer is one of the most dangerous diseases to human health, with high morbidity and mortality. It can be cured by surgery at early stage, therefore, the early detection and early treatment of lung cancer are especially important. Serum tumor markers play an important role in the detection and diagnosis of lung cancer. Galectin-3 is known to be expressed in a variety of malignant tumors. This study was to explore the serum levels of Galectin-3 and its clinical significance in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. METHODS: The serum levels of Galectin-3 in peripheral blood were detected by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) in 69 NSCLC patients and 77 cases of healthy control subjects, and compared between the two groups. Then we analyze the correlations between the serum levels of Galectin-3 and the clinical features of lung cancer. RESULTS: The serum levels of Galectin-3 in NSCLC patients were significantly higher than those of healthy control subjects (P < 0.01). The serum levels of Galectin-3 with lymph node metastasis were significantly higher than those of patients without lymph node metastasis (P < 0.01), and N2 lymph node metastasis had higher levels of serum Galectin-3 than those of N1 lymph node metastasis (P < 0.01). Clinical stage Ⅲ and stage Ⅳ patients had higher levels of serum Galectin-3 than those of clinical stage Ⅰ and clinical stage Ⅱ (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Our study showed the serum levels of Galectin-3 are highly expressed in NSCLC patients and are significantly related to lymph node metastasis. It may be a potential tumor marker for lung cancer.