Endocrine Abstracts

Background: There are only few reports regarding the role of serum galectin-3 (Gal-3) as an early biochemical marker in thyroid carcinoma.

Aim: To evaluate the potential overexpression of Gal-3 in sera from patients with confirmed diagnosis of papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC).

Patients and methods: We retrospectively investigated serum Gal-3 in 40 patients referred to the surgical department for thyroidectomy. Sera were collected before surgery. We measured sera of 40 patients (mean age 48.79±14.15 years): 32 women (82.5%) and seven mens (17.5%). Patients were divided in four groups, based on histopathological stage: nodular goitre, PTC1, PTC2, PTC3/4. Gal-3 was measured by Elisa (Abcam, UK); sensitivity 0.12 ng/ml, intra-assay cv 6.4%, inter-assay cv 11.4%. The study was approved by Ethics Committee of the Institute.

Results: patients showed different PTC stages at histopathological exam, as follows: 10 PTC1, 10 PTC2 and 11 PTC3/4, respectively; nine patients were diagnosed with benign nodular goitre. We found a significant difference between cancer and non-cancer patients (median Gal-3 – 8.427 ng/ml vs 4.402 ng/ml, P=0.019), between PTC3/4 patients and those with nodular goitre (median Gal-3 – 9.069 ng/ml vs 4.402 ng/ml, P=0.0097), and between PTC1 and goitre patients (median Gal-3 – 8.751 ng/ml vs 4.402 ng/ml, P=0.047). In our study, we noticed higher values vs reference ranges in nodular goitre group (mean 5.046 (2.28–7.81) ng/ml vs 0.54 (0–2.28) ng/ml, P<0.0001). However, serum Gal-3 did not discriminated between different PTC stages. Intra-assay cv% in our hands was 3.57%.

Conclusion: Serum Gal-3 might be considered as an early circulating tumour marker in thyroid cancer. Our preliminary data showed no association of serum Gal-3 with tumour aggressiveness.

Disclosure: UEFISCDI grant PN-II- PT-PCCA-2011-3.2 no.135/2012.