title: Decreased expression of galectin-3 predicts tumour recurrence in pTa bladder cancer.
abstract: Galectin-3 (gal-3) is a glycoprotein involved in various physiological cellular processes. Altered expression/loss of function of gal-3 is suggested to be involved in the pathogenesis and further progression of various human cancer entities. The aim of the present investigation was to elucidate the role of galectin-3 in the development and/or progression of non-muscle invasive (pTa, pT1) transitional cell carcinoma (TCC) of the urinary bladder. Gal-3 was analyzed by immunohistochemistry in 162 randomly selected non-muscle invasive bladder cancer specimens (pTa, 91; pT1, 71) using tissue microarray technique. It was compared with various patient and tumour characteristics (t-test). In addition, the role of gal-3 in association with tumour recurrence and progression was investigated (Log-rank test, Cox regression analysis). Gal-3 was found to be negatively correlated with tumour grade (p<0.02). Within the group of non-muscle invasive TCC, gal-3 could not differentiate between pTa and pT1 tumours (p=0.50), and within the subgroup of pTa tumours, loss of gal-3 determined the likelihood for the development of recurrent disease (p<0.03; Student's t-test). Furthermore, as demonstrated by Kaplan-Meier analysis, the expression level of gal-3 was identified to predict the duration of recurrence-free survival (p=0.01). In the multivariate analysis, gal-3 was found as an independent prognostic marker for predicting recurrence among the cohort of bladder tumours classified as pTa. In conclusion, loss of galectin-3 appears to be involved in the carcinogenesis of TCC and to serve as a valuable biological variable to identify a subgroup of Ta bladder cancer patients at high risk for the development of recurrent disease.
authors.affiliation: Department of Urology, Eberhard-Karls University, D-72076 Tübingen, Germany. mariokramer@gmail.com
authors.forename: Mario Wolfgang
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: Kramer
authors.forename: Markus Antonius
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Kuczyk
authors.forename: Jörg
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hennenlotter
authors.forename: Jürgen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Serth
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Schilling
authors.forename: Arnulf
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Stenzl
authors.forename: Axel Stuart
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Merseburger
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D002295:Carcinoma, Transitional Cell / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D018450:Disease Progression; D005260:Female; D037502:Galectin 3 / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D012008:Recurrence; D001749:Urinary Bladder Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology
chemical_list: D037502:Galectin 3