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Eur J Cardiothorac Surg 2007;31:783-787. doi:10.1016/j.ejcts.2007.01.072
Copyright © 2007, European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

The role of microvascularization and growth/adhesion-regulatory lectins in the prognosis of non-small cell lung cancer in stage II

^a Department of Surgery, University of Szeged, Szeged, Hungary
^b Institute of Pathology, Charite, Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany
^c Institute of Pathology, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany
^d Institute of Pathology, University of Szeged, Szeged, Hungary
^e Institute of Physiological Chemistry, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, Germany

Received 8 September 2006; received in revised form 16 January 2007; accepted 22 January 2007.

^_* Corresponding author. Address: Department of Thoracic Surgery, University of Freiburg, Hugstetter Street 55, 79106 Freiburg, Germany. Tel.: +49 761 270 2342; fax: +49 761 270 2499. (Email: szoketama{at}hotmail.com).

Objective: To investigate the role of growth/adhesion-regulatory lectins in the prognosis of the stage II non-small cell lung carcinomas (NSCLCs) via quantitative lectinhistochemical examinations and measurement of microvascularization of the tumour. Methods: In 94 radically operated lung cancer patients, stage II NSCLC was confirmed histologically (T1N1: 6, T2N1: 66, T3N0: 22). Immunohistochemical methods were applied to investigate the galectin-1, galectin-3, CL-16 and hyaluronic-acid-binding capacities of the tumours, and also the expression of galectin-1, -3 and heparin binding lectin. Sections were examined with the aid of qualitative (stained/not-stained) and syntactic structure analysis. The microvessels were detected by staining with anti-factor VIII antibodies. The findings were compared with the survival data. Results: In the univariate survival examinations, the prognosis was poorer for the galectin-1 and -3-expressing tumours (p = 0.014 and p = 0.003) and in multivariate analysis for the galectin-3-expressing tumours (p = 0.046, RR: 2.026). Correlations could be demonstrated between the survival and the distance between the tumour cell for the tumours binding galectin-3 (p = 0.039, RR: 5.944) and expressing galectin-3 (p = 0.041, RR: 3.335). An elevation of the volume fraction of microvessels was a sign of a poor prognosis (p = 0.017, RR: 2.334), however the increase of surface fraction improves the survival (p = 0.01, RR: 0.956). Conclusions: In stage II NSCLC, galectin-3 expression is indicative of a poor prognosis. In tumour expressing and binding galectin-3, the distance between the tumour cells is of prognostic significance. An increase in the microvessel volume fraction points to a poorer survival rate.

Key Words: Lung cancer • Lectins • Microvascularization • Syntactic structure analysis