title: Loss of galectin-3 expression correlates with clear cell renal carcinoma progression and reduced survival.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Galectin-3 is a member of the glycoprotein family, actively involved in various biological interactions including cell growth, cell adhesion, cell differentiation and apoptosis. The aim of this study was to analyze the expression of galectin-3 in clear cell renal carcinoma and to assess its prognostic significance.
  
  
  METHODS
  The expression of galectin-3 was analyzed by immunohistochemistry in 149 clear cell renal carcinomas. The levels were correlated to established clinical parameters such as nuclear grade, pathological stage, lymph node, distant metastasis, and patients' survival.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In normal kidney tissue, the expression of galectin-3 was found to be uniformly present in the tubular epithelial cells. A decrease of antigen expression levels were significantly associated with higher T-stages (P < 0.02), unfavourable long-term prognosis in univariate Kaplan-Meier (P < 0.007) and multivariate Cox proportional hazard analyses (P < 0.04). Univariate analysis could demonstrate an association with tumor-specific death with decreased galectin-3 expression, whereas multivariate analysis failed to prove the aforementioned observation.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results suggest that a loss of galectin-3 expression is involved in renal carcinogenesis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Urology, Hannover Medical School, Carl-Neuberg-Str. 1, 30625, Hannover, Germany. amerseburger@web.de
authors.forename: Axel S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Merseburger
authors.forename: Mario W
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: Kramer
authors.forename: Jörg
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hennenlotter
authors.forename: Jürgen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Serth
authors.forename: Stephan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kruck
authors.forename: Alfredo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gracia
authors.forename: Arnulf
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Stenzl
authors.forename: Markus A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Kuczyk
mesh_terms: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000378:metabolism; D002292:Carcinoma, Renal Cell / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000401:mortality*; D005260:Female; D037502:Galectin 3 / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D007680:Kidney Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000401:mortality*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011379:Prognosis; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D037502:Galectin 3