Expression of galectin-3, a member of the β-galactosidase binding lectin family, is reported to correlate with cell adhesion. The present immunohistochemical study was performed to clarify the impact of galectin-3 expression on patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma. Galectin-3 expression was examined immunohistochemically in 154 patients with esophageal squamous carcinoma, who had undergone surgery without preoperative supplemental therapy at the Department of Surgery II in the Hospital of the Faculty of Medicine, Oita University, between 1990 and 2000. The cases with ≥30% nuclear-stained cancer cells were considered high nuclear expression cases. In contrast, the cases with ≥45% cytoplasm-stained cancer cells were considered high cytoplasm expression cases. Twenty-three of 154 ESCC cases were regarded as high nuclear expression (14.9%) and 72 of 154 cases were regarded as high cytoplasm-expression (46.5%). High expression of galectin-3 in the nuclei inversely correlated with vascular invasion (p=0.030) and histological differentiation (p=0.0064). In contrast, cytoplasmic expression of galectin-3 revealed no significant impact on clinicopathological factors. Neither nuclear nor cytoplasmic expression of galectin-3 was a prognostic indicator in ESCC. Elevated expression of galectin-3 in the nuclei but not the cytoplasm may be an important biological parameter related to histological differentiation and vascular invasion in patients with ESCC.

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