Prognostic significance of galectin-3 expression in patients with resected NSCLC treated with platinum-based adjuvant chemotherapy.

Background: Galectin-3 (GAL3), a protein encoded by the LGALS3 gene, plays diverse roles in cancer initiation, progression, and drug resistance. Accordingly, high GAL3 expression in tumor cells is associated with poor prognosis in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). However, the prognostic impact of GAL3 expression on patients with resected NSCLC receiving platinum-based adjuvant chemotherapy (AC) remains unclear. This study aimed to determine the prognostic significance of GAL3 expression in NSCLC patients receiving platinum-based AC.

Methods: The study included 111 patients with completely resected stages II and IIIA NSCLC who were receiving platinum-based AC. GAL3 expression in cancer cells was evaluated immunohistochemically according to H-score ("histo score), with a score of ≥170 considered as high expression. The correlation of GAL3 expression with clinicopathological characteristics and survival was subsequently evaluated.

Results: In survival analysis, GAL3 expression was significantly associated with recurrence-free survival (RFS) and overall survival (OS). In multivariate analysis, GAL3 expression was an independent predictive factor of RFS rather than OS.

Conclusions: GAL3 expression is a reliable biomarker to predict the prognosis of completely resected NSCLC patients receiving platinum-based AC.