The Expression and Clinical Significance of Galectin-3 in Human Colorectal Carcinoma

Objective: To study the expression of Galectin-3 in colorectal carcinoma,and to investigate its in colorectal cancer progression of meaning in the course,designed for clinical diagnosis,treatment,prognosis and provide a new theoretical basis. Method: Detected the expression of Galectin- 3 in 52 cases of colorectal cancer,20 cases of colorectal adenoma and 20 cases of colorectal normal mucosa tissue through the application of immunohistochemistry. Analyzed the relationship between its expression with the patient's sex,age,tumor location,tumor differentiation,infiltration and lymph node metastasi. Result: ①Galectin-3 in colorectal normal mucosa,colorectal adenoma and carcinoma showed positive expression,and the expression intensity increases,positive expression rate had a significant difference( P0.01) among three groups.②Galectin-3 in infiltration over the muscle layer of the colorectal carcinoma was higher than that of infiltration does not exceed the muscular layer of the colon cancer tissue( P0.01); Galectin-3 in poorly differentiated colorectal carcinoma was higher than that of well-differentiated and moderately differentiated colorectal cancer tissue( P 0.05); Galetctin-3 in lymph node metastasis of colorectal cancer tissues than those without lymph node metastasis in colorectal cancer tissue( P 0.01). Conclusion: The expression of Galectin-3 in colorectal carcinoma is higher than that in normal colorectal mucosa. It suggests that the higher expression of Galectin-3 play an improtant role in the development of colorectal carcinoma. The expressions of Galectin-3is significantly correlated with depth of invasion,lymph node metastasis and degree of differentiation in colorectal carcinoma. So they could be a predictive and prognostic factor of colorectal carcinoma.