Prognostic significance of endogenous adhesion/growth-regulatory lectins in lung cancer

Objective: To determine the expression of endogenous
adhesion/growth-regulatory lectins and their binding sites using
labeled tissue lectins as well as the binding profile of hyaluronic
acid as an approach to define new prognostic markers. Methods:
Sections of paraffin-embedded histological material of 481 lungs
from lung tumor patients following radical lung excision processed
by a routine immunohistochemical method (avidin-biotin labeling,
DAB chromogen). Specific antibodies against galectins-1 and - 3 and
the heparin-binding lectin were tested. Staining by labeled
galectins and hyaluronic acid was similarly visualized by a routine
protocol. After semiquantitative assessment of staining, the
results were compared with the pT and pN stages and the
histological type. Survival was calculated by univariate and
multivariate methods. Results: Binding of galectin-1 and its
expression tended to increase, whereas the parameters for
galectin-3 decreased in advanced pT and pN stages at a
statistically significant level. The number of positive cases was
considerably smaller among the cases with small cell lung cancer
than in the group with non-small-cell lung cancer, among which
adenocarcinomas figured prominently with the exception of
galectin-1 expression. Kaplan-Meier computations revealed that the
survival rate of patients with galectin-3-binding or
galectin-1-expressing tumors was significantly poorer than that of
the negative cases. In the multivariate calculations of survival
lymph node metastases ( p < 0.0001), histological type ( p =
0.003), galectin-3-binding capacity ( p = 0.01), galectin-3
expression ( p = 0.03) and pT status ( p = 0.003) proved to be
independent prognostic factors, not correlated with the pN stage.
Conclusion: The expression and the capacity to bind the
adhesion/growth regulatory galectin-3 is defined as an unfavorable
prognostic factor not correlated with the pTN stage. Copyright (C)
2005 S. Karger AG, Basel.