Abstract:

Objective To investigate the  expressions of Galectin-3 and Galectin-9 in  the tumor tissue and adjacent cancer tissue of the patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and their relationship with prognosis,and to explore the significance of Galectin-3 and Galectin-9 in the occurrence and development of HCC.Methods The expressions of Galectin-3 and Galectin-9 in 197 cases of HCC tissue  and 131 cases of adjacent cancer  tissue were detected by immunohistochemical technique;the association between the  expressions of Galectin-3 and Galectin-9 and  the  clinicopathologic characteristics  and prognosis of HCC patients were analyzed.Results There was no significant difference of the positive expression rate of Galectin-9 between HCC tumor tissue and adjacent cancer tissue (P>0.05).The expression levels of Galectin-9 in the  patients with  poorly differentiated HCC  or  with lymph-vascular invasion were lower than those in the  patients with well differentiated HCC  or  without lymph-vascular invasion (P<0.05);the patients with a high-level expression of Galection-9 showed a longer survival period compared with those with negative and low-level expression of Galectin-9 (P<0.05).The positive expression rate of Galectin-3 in HCC tumor tissue was significant higher than that in adjacent cancer tissue (P<0.01).The expression level of Galectin-3 in HCC tissue was not related to the clinicopathologic characteristics  and prognosis of the patients.After adjusting the influencing factors,the multivariate analysis results showed only the infection of hepatitisc (RR=2.86,95%CI：1.13-7.30,P=0.027),multiple tumor (RR=2.38,95%CI：1.39-4.07,P=0.002),diameter of tumor>5 cm (RR=2.13,95%CI：1.21-3.76,P=0.009), and lymph-vascular invasion(RR=1.96,95%CI：1.07-3.62,P=0.030) were the independent influencing factors of prognosis of the HCC patients.Conclusion The expression level of Galectin-9 is related to the tumor differentiation and lymph-vascular invasion of the HCC patients,and the expression levels of Galectin-3 and Galectin-9 are not associated with the prognosis  of HCC patients.

Key words:  , hepatocellular carcinoma, Galectin-3, Galectin-9, prognosis