Overexpression of galectin-1 indicates poor prognosis in resected non-small cell lung cancer patients

Galectin-1 overexpression is associated with the development and prognosis in several cancers. However, the prognostic significance of galectin-1 expression in NSCLC patients remains poor. We evaluated the prognostic value of galectin-1 expression by immunohistochemistry in resected non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. A total of 189 patients were enrolled in our study. Galectin-1 expression was positive in 67 out of 189 lung cancer samples (35.4%). We found that galectin-1 was significantly associated with gender, smoking, T stage, lymph node metastasis, and TNM stage (All P<0.05). The overall survival for galectin-1 positive patients was significantly poorer than that for galectin-1 negative patients. Patients with positive galectin-1 expression had worse survival than those with negative expression levels in adenocarcinoma (ADC), whereas the difference did not exist in the squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). Multivariate analysis showed the presence of visceral pleural invasion (VPI) (HR: 1.711; 95% CI: 1.008-2.905, P=0.047), the p-TNM stage (III-IV/I-II/)(HR: 1.049; 95% CI: 1.025-1.074 P<0.001), and galectin-1 positive expression (HR: 1.827; 95% CI: 1.099-3.035 P=0.020) were independent prognostic indicators of poor OS for resected lung cancer patients. In summary, our results have shown that galectin-1 expression was associated with lymph node metastasis and tumor progression, and was an independent prognostic factor for poor survival in NSCLC patients, especially in patients with adenocarcinoma.