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Clinicopathological significance of decreased galectin-3 expression and the long-term prognosis in patients with breast cancer

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Abstract

Purpose

Galectin-3 expression is modulated in cancer cells, and that finding has led to the recognition of galectin-3 as a diagnostic or prognostic marker for various cancers, including breast cancer. This study investigated the correlation between galectin-3 expression and the clinicopathological features in patients with breast cancer, in order to determine the relevance and role of galectin-3 in breast cancer progression.

Methods

Galectin-3 expression was investigated immunohistochemically in 116 patients with breast cancer, and a statistical analysis was performed.

Results

Galectin-3 expression in breast cancer was significantly associated with tumor vascular invasion. However, galectin-3 expression was not associated with Ki-67 expression, which reflects tumor proliferation. Disease-free survival and long-term overall survival were significantly shorter for patients with reduced galectin-3 expression.

Conclusions

This study demonstrated that the galectin-3 expression was associated with tumor vascular invasion and metastasis, suggesting that galectin-3 plays a critical role in tumor progression via an invasive mechanism but not via proliferation in breast cancer. Furthermore, reduced expression of galectin-3 is useful for predicting a long-term poor prognosis in patients with breast cancer.

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Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully thank Prof. Avraham Raz for kindly providing us with the anti-galectin-3 antibody. The authors would like to thank Saitoh Y, Yano T, Ohno M, Matsui Y and Muraoka S for their secretarial assistance. This work was supported in part by Grants-in-Aid from the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (T.F.).

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no competing financial interests.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of General Surgical Science, Graduate School of Medicine, Gunma University, 3-39-22 Showa-machi, Maebashi, Gunma, 371-8511, Japan

    Sayaka Yamaki, Takaaki Fujii, Reina Yajima, Tomoko Hirakata, Tomomi Fujisawa, Soichi Tsutsumi, Takayuki Asao, Yasuhiro Yanagita & Hiroyuki Kuwano

  2. First Department of Surgery, Graduate School of Medicine, Dokkyo University, Tochigi, Japan

    Satoru Yamaguchi

  3. Department of Breast Oncology, Gunma Cancer Center, Gunma, Japan

    Tomoko Hirakata, Tomomi Fujisawa & Yasuhiro Yanagita

  4. Department of Pathology, Gunma Cancer Center, Gunma, Japan

    Misa Iijima

Authors
  1. Sayaka Yamaki
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  2. Takaaki Fujii
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  3. Reina Yajima
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  4. Tomoko Hirakata
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  7. Soichi Tsutsumi
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  8. Takayuki Asao
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  9. Yasuhiro Yanagita
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  10. Misa Iijima
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  11. Hiroyuki Kuwano
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Takaaki Fujii.

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Yamaki, S., Fujii, T., Yajima, R. et al. Clinicopathological significance of decreased galectin-3 expression and the long-term prognosis in patients with breast cancer. Surg Today 43, 901–905 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00595-012-0378-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00595-012-0378-3

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