Galectin-8 is associated with recurrence and survival of patients with non-metastatic gastric cancer after surgery

The expression of galectin family has been unraveled in many malignant tumors and related with clinical outcomes. Our current study aims to investigate the prognostic value of galectin-8 expression and refine the current risk stratification system in non-metastatic gastric cancer patients. We retrospectively enrolled 421 patients with gastric cancer from Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University in 2008. The expression of galectin-8 was detected by immunohistochemistry, and its association with clinicopathological features and prognostic outcomes were assessed. We found that galectin-8 expression was significantly associated with tumor size (P = 0.007), T stage (P = 0.001), N stage (P < 0.001), and tumor node metastasis (TNM) stage (P < 0.001). In addition, low galectin-8 expression indicated poor overall survival (OS) (P < 0.001) and disease-free survival (DFS) (P < 0.001). Furthermore, galectin-8 expression level was identified as an independent favorable prognostic factor for OS (P < 0.001). A predictive nomogram was generated with identified independent prognosticators to evaluate patient OS at 3 and 5 years. Our study suggested that galectin-8 is a potential independent favorable prognostic biomarker for survival and recurrence of patients with gastric cancer after surgical resection and the integration of intratumoral galectin-8 expression level into current TNM staging system would help to refine individual risk stratification.