Galectin-3 not Galectin-9 as a candidate prognosis marker for hepatocellular carcinoma

Background Galectins (Gal) are a family of protein that bind to the β-galactoside of glycoproteins. It modulates a variety of biological functions, such as tumor growth, angiogenesis and tumor metastasis. A series of experimental and clinical evidences have been reported to support a correlation between galectin expressions and neoplastic transformation, progression and prognosis. The objective of this study was to estimate the expression of Gal-3 and Gal-9 in order to evaluate their relation to hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) -related clinical features and their prognostic values. Methods We evaluated Gal-3 and Gal-9 expression in 247 HCC patients by a tissue microarray immunohistochemistry method, then analyzed the relationship between expression levels of Gal-3 and Gal-9 protein and tumor parameters or clinical outcomes. Results The Gal-3 expression was significantly higher in tumor tissues compared with adjacent non-tumor tissues (P < 0.001), while no significant differences of Gal-9 was detected (P = 0.222). A higher Gal-3 expression was significantly associated with lymph-vascular invasion (P = 0.049), poor histological differentiation (P = 0.016), and no cirrhosis (P = 0.040). In contrast, a lower Gal-9 expression was related to lymph-vascular invasion (P = 0.012) and poor histological differentiation (P = 0.002). Survival analysis showed that patients with higher Gal-3 expression had worse overall survival (P = 0.012) , however no correlation was found between Gal-9 expression and survival (P = 0.185). Multivariate analysis showed that multiple tumor (HR = 1.94, 95% CI [1.36-2.78]), tumor size ≥ 5 cm (HR = 1.51, 95% CI [1.07-2.12]), Lymph-vascular invasion (HR = 1.45, 95% CI [1.00-2.10]) and Gal-3 expression (HR = 1.57, 95% CI [1.06-2.33]) were independent influencing factors of prognosis in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma. Conclusion Gal-3 was expected to serve as a novel prognostic marker of hepatocellular carcinoma, while Gal-9 expression was only related to tumor progression.