title: Expression of galectin-3 in gastric adenocarcinoma.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Galectin-3 a member of the galectin family is an endogenous β-galactoside binding lectin. It has been found to be associated with cell adhesion, recognition, proliferation, differentiation, immunomodulation, angiogenesis, apoptosis and can be a reliable marker for cancer aggressiveness. The aim of this study was to verify protein expression in gastric adenocarcinoma tissues and correlate the results with the clinical aspects in the study population.
  
  
  METHODS
  Galectin-3 expression was examined by immunohistochemistry in 57 samples of gastric adenocarcinomas tissues. Galectin-3 protein expression was observed in the cytoplasm and the nucleus of examined tissues.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Thirty one (54.4%) samples had strong or moderate staining and 26 (45.6%) tumours had negative or weak staining. The galectin-3 did not show association with the sex (p=0.347), age (p=0.999), Lauren's classification (p=0.731) and TNM stage (p=0.222). Regarding the TNM stage, 66.7 per cent of stage I tumours had strong or moderate staining; with tumours stage IV this percentage was 33.3 per cent.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results suggest that gal-3 is not a reliable biomarker for prognosis of the gastric adenocarcinoma by immunohistochemistry. Further studies need to be done on a large sample of tumour tissues in different clinical staging.
authors.forename: Thiago Simño
authors.initials: TS
authors.lastname: Gomes
authors.forename: Celina Tizuko Fujiyama
authors.initials: CT
authors.lastname: Oshima
authors.forename: Nora Manoukian
authors.initials: NM
authors.lastname: Forones
authors.forename: Flávio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: De Oliveira Lima
authors.affiliation: Department of Biosciences, Federal University of São Paulo, SP, Brazil.
authors.forename: Daniel Araki
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Ribeiro
mesh_terms: D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000378:metabolism / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001938:Brazil; D005260:Female; D037502:Galectin 3 / Q000378:metabolism*; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D008297:Male; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism / Q000503:physiopathology*
chemical_list: D037502:Galectin 3