Serum Galectin-3: diagnostic value for papillary thyroid carcinoma

Abstract

Objective: Thyroid cancer constitutes approximately 1% of all cancers, approximately 90% of the endocrine malignancies, and is responsible for 0.4% of cancer-related deaths. Additional markers are required for the accurate diagnosis of thyroid malignancies. There is no marker that can accurately facilitate pre-operative benign-malignant differentiation of thyroid nodules. The present study aims to evaluate the diagnostic value of preoperative serum Galectin-3 levels in thyroid cancer and to avoid unnecessary aggressive interventions. Material and Methods:Sixty-four patients who were operated between May 2009 and April 2011 were included in this study prospectively. Patients with toxic nodules and those with malignancies detected in preoperative fine needle aspiration biopsies (FNAB) were excluded. Patients with thyroid nodules of >3 cm in ultrasonography or having suspicious cytological findings in their preoperative FNABs regardless of the nodule size were included. Patients were divided into 2 groups, "control"and "cancer," according to the postoperative pathology results. Results:The control group included 50 and cancer group included 14 patients. The mean age of the control group was 44.84±13

Galectin-3 as a novel biomarker for disease diagnosis and a target for therapy (Review)

“…A previous study compared glypican-3 (a member of the glypican family of heparan-sulfate proteoglycans bound to the plasma membrane) with galectin-3 and demonstrated that galectin-3 was more sensitive in diagnosing thyroid carcinoma; however, it was less specific in discriminating follicular-patterned neoplasm ( 125 ). Besides tissue expression, the preoperative serum galectin-3 level had diagnostic value, as it was significantly higher in the cancer patients than in the control subjects ( 126 ).…”

Evaluation of the serum levels of galectin‐3 in patients with oral lichen planus disease

“…The significance of galectin-3 was evaluated in the different type of human tumors such as breast (Mayoral et al, 2008), colon (Tsuboi et al, 2007), hepatocellular carcinoma (Jiang et al, 2014), and OSCC (Muniz et al, 2015). Besides, the diagnostic value of galectin-3 in thyroid carcinoma has been extensively investigated (Al-Sharaky & Younes, 2016;Chiu et al, 2010;Yılmaz, Karşıdağ, Tatar, & Tüzün, 2015). In addition, the role of galectin-3 in inflammation and inflammatory disorders has been extensively reviewed (Chen, Liu, & Yang, 2005;Henderson & Sethi, 2009;de Oliveira et al, 2015).…”

Galectin-3 Performance in Histologic and Cytologic Assessment of Thyroid Nodules: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

“…These findings are probably due to the sub- intra-cellular localization of Gal-3 and the lack of its secretory pathway. To date, the role of serum Gal-3 is excluded [ 40 , 45 , 72 , 73 , 74 ]. Two papers investigated an imaging Gal-3 approach [ 75 , 76 ], but until now no data on application of these radiolabelled antibodies in humans exist.…”