Abstract
AimThere is an urgent need to set up a useful biomarker for ovarian cancer. Galectin-1 is a promising carbohydrate-binding protein which plays a remarkable role in various malignancies yet its clinical significance is questionable. In this study, we have tested the clinical implications of serum Galectin-1 levels in patients with ovarian tumours.Main methodsSerum Galectin-1 levels were quantified in 84 newly diagnosed ovarian tumour patients and 20 healthy controls by Enzyme Linked Immuno Sorbent Assay during the course of the disease. Therefore the samples were taken at diagnosis, after surgery and after chemotherapy.Key findingsThe Galectin-1 levels were found to be associated with various variables of Ovarian Cancer patients. The levels were found to be prominently high in postmenopausal patients. Galectin-1 levels were raised in epithelial ovarian tumours with significantly high levels in serous subtype. A decrease in Galectin-1 levels post-surgical intervention and after receiving chemotherapy was found. Galectin-1 levels evidently distinguished between normal, benign, malignant and metastatic cases as compared to CA125 levels. Galectin-1 demonstrated to be a better biomarker than CA125 according to the Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve analysis.SignificanceThe study emphasizes that serum Galectin-1 may serve as a better surrogate biomarker in Ovarian Cancer for early detection, discriminating between malignant and benign abdominal masses and monitoring the progression of the disease and response to treatment.
Highlights
Ovarian carcinoma is a lethal gynaecological cancer with distinguishing biology at the molecular, cellular and clinical level [1, 2]
The Galectin 1 levels were analyzed further in patients categorized into the following groups: a) Galectin 1 levels in patients with different Ovarian Tumour Histotypes: Patients with epithelial ovarian tumours were significantly having high levels (44.22±22.06 ng/ml) than patients with germ cell ovarian tumours(16.71±6.51 ng/ml) (p0.05)
On comparing epithelial ovarian tumour subtypes with Galectin-1 levels, there was no significance found except between the patients with serous epithelial ovarian tumours (45.47±22.12 ng/ml) and mucinous ovarian tumours (14.55±1.32 ng/ml) (p
Summary
Ovarian carcinoma is a lethal gynaecological cancer with distinguishing biology at the molecular, cellular and clinical level [1, 2] It is the eighth most common cause of death worldwide killing 140,000 women [3]. There has been a breakthrough in the field of oncology with the discovery of galectins and since they have taken a centre stage in cancer research due to their aberrant expression and immunosuppression in the tumours [9] They are small molecular weight, soluble, glycanbinding proteins [10] that are implicated in regulating cell growth, cell adhesion, apoptosis, development and progression of tumours. Galectin-1 is a prototype Galectin; first protein discovered in Galectin family [12] It is a 14KDa β galactoside binding protein which participates in various biological functions like tissue development, cell proliferation, pre mRNA splicing and immunoregulation [13]. In this study we investigated serum levels of Galectin-1 in patients with ovarian tumours and its efficacy as a biomarker for diagnosis and monitoring progression and response to treatment
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