Kamrani Ghodsieh, Havaspour Reza, Ranaee Mohammad, Shafi Hamid, Shirafkan Hoda, Sohrabi Mohammad Ebrahim, Jahansouz Davoud
Cancer Research Center, Health Research Institute, Babol University of Medical Sciences, Babol, Iran.
Clinical Research Development Center, Shahid Beheshti Hospital, Babol University of Medical Sciences.
Caspian J Intern Med. 2024 Oct 27;16(1):165-168. doi: 10.22088/cjim.16.1.165. eCollection 2025 Winter.
Renal Cell Carcinoma is one of the most common malignancies worldwide. To date, multiple attempts had been made to accurately diagnose it and predict its behavior. One of the most intriguing biomarkers that have been assessed since 90s, is galectin-3. This study aimed to increase the prior knowledge of galectin-3 expression association with patient's clinicopathologic factors.
In this single-center cross-sectional study, 71 patient samples from hospital archive were assessed for galectin-3 expression by immunohistochemistry assay. Pathologic slides were evaluated for histologic subtype, grade, stage, tumor size, presence of necrosis, and invasion of the renal vein. By adding cytoplasmic staining score to the color intensity score, a final score was recorded as galectin-3 positivity score.
88 pathological slides of patients with confirmed RCC were screened and 71 were finally assessed. The mean age of the patients was 58.52 years (lowest 30 and highest 87). 67.6% were males and 32.4% were females. 68% of tumors were clear cell carcinoma, and only one oncocytoma was present. All 9 chromophobe cases showed a strong galectin-3 expression. Except for female gender (47.8% vs 18.8% in men; P=0.01), no statistically significant association was found between patient age, tumor grade, tumor size, tumor stage, and renal vein invasion with the level of galectin-3 expression.
Considering the contradictory findings between this study and other similar studies, it can be concluded that the physiological role of galectins is very complex and the need for larger and more comprehensive evaluations is felt.
肾细胞癌是全球最常见的恶性肿瘤之一。迄今为止，人们已多次尝试对其进行准确诊断并预测其行为。自20世纪90年代以来评估的最引人关注的生物标志物之一是半乳糖凝集素-3。本研究旨在增加对半乳糖凝集素-3表达与患者临床病理因素相关性的已有认识。
在这项单中心横断面研究中，通过免疫组织化学分析评估了来自医院存档的71例患者样本中的半乳糖凝集素-3表达。对病理切片进行组织学亚型、分级、分期、肿瘤大小、坏死情况以及肾静脉侵犯情况的评估。通过将细胞质染色评分与颜色强度评分相加，记录最终得分作为半乳糖凝集素-3阳性评分。
对88例确诊为肾细胞癌患者的病理切片进行了筛查，最终评估了71例。患者的平均年龄为58.52岁（最小30岁，最大87岁）。男性占67.6%，女性占32.4%。68%的肿瘤为透明细胞癌，仅存在1例嗜酸细胞瘤。所有9例嫌色细胞病例均显示半乳糖凝集素-3强表达。除女性外（47.8%对男性的18.8%；P=0.01），未发现患者年龄、肿瘤分级、肿瘤大小、肿瘤分期以及肾静脉侵犯与半乳糖凝集素-3表达水平之间存在统计学显著关联。
考虑到本研究与其他类似研究结果的矛盾，可得出结论：半乳糖凝集素的生理作用非常复杂，需要进行更大规模和更全面的评估。
