Objective: To study the relationship between expression of galectin-3 (Gal-3) and osteopontin (OPN) in occult metastasis in non-small cell lung cancer.
Methods: Forty-six patients of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) from January 2006 to October 2007 were selected. There were 28 males and 18 females, aged from 33 to 77 years old. The levels of lung tissues Gal-3 and OPN were detected by RT-PCR, and the levels of blood plasma's were measured by ELISA.
Results: There were 12 patients who had metastasized. In un-metastasis group the Gal-3 and OPN mRNA expression levels were significantly lower than that in metastasis group: mean value were 0.07 +/- 0.17 and 0.17 +/- 0.25 in un-metastasis group, while 0.73 +/- 0.23 and 0.79 +/- 0.24 in metastasis group. Blood plasma levels of Gal-3 (18.8 +/- 7.9) microg/L and OPN (153.5 +/- 63.5) microg/L in NSCLC which were detected from metastasis group were higher than un-metastasis group of (9.2 +/- 5.6) microg/L and (89.2 +/- 24.0) microg/L.
Conclusions: High serum levels of Gal-3 and OPN and high expression of Gal-3 and OPN mRNA in NSCLC are closely related to the occurrence and metastasis of NSCLC. They may be indexes of evaluating the occult metastasis in NSCLC.