Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Galectin-3 levels linked to survival after dog oral melanoma surgery
By Vargas, T H M et al.·Published in Journal of comparative pathology·2019·Laborató, Brazil·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Galectin-3 Expression Correlates with Post-surgical Survival in Canine Oral Melanomas.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A study looked at 27 dogs with oral melanoma, a type of mouth cancer that can be very aggressive. Researchers found that a protein called Galectin-3 (Gal-3) could help predict how long dogs might survive after surgery. Dogs with higher levels of Gal-3 in their cells tended to live longer, while those with more nuclear atypia (abnormal cell features) often had shorter survival times. This suggests that measuring Gal-3 could be useful for veterinarians in understanding the prognosis for dogs with oral melanoma. More research is needed to confirm these findings.
People also search for: dog oral melanoma prognosis · canine melanoma treatment options · Galectin-3 in dogs cancer
Abstract
Malignant melanomas (MMs) represent 7% of all malignant neoplasms in dogs. Oral melanocytic neoplasms are often malignant and associated with poor prognosis. There are no universally accepted prognostic markers for canine oral melanoma. Galectin (Gal)-3 is a prognostic marker for human neoplasms such as thyroid, gastric, colorectal and prostate cancers. The protein is related to processes that favour cancer progression, such as angiogenesis, proliferation and apoptosis. The aim of the present study was to characterize the immunohistochemical expression of Gal-3 in canine oral melanomas and to compare it with post-surgical survival, the expression of apoptosis-related proteins and other known prognostic tools. Twenty-seven samples of canine oral melanomas were evaluated for Gal-3, B-cell lymphoma (BCL) 2, caspase (CASP) 3 and Ki67 expression, mitotic index and degree of nuclear atypia. Gal-3 cytoplasmic positivity was correlated positively, while nuclear positivity was correlated negatively, with survival. The intensity of BCL2 labelling was also correlated positively with Gal-3 cytoplasmic positivity. Higher nuclear atypia was observed in dogs with melanoma that died due to the tumour, as well as in dogs that survived for <1 year after surgery. We have confirmed the importance of nuclear atypia for MMs and suggest that Gal-3 is a valuable prognostic indicator for this neoplasm. More in-depth studies are needed to unveil Gal-3 functions in canine MMs using larger sample sizes.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31812173/