Clinical impact of galectin-3 in newly diagnosed t (15;17)(q22;q21)/PML-RARa acute promyelocytic leukemia treated with all-trans retinoic acid and arsenic trioxide-based regimens

Increased galectin-3 expression has been currently showed to be associated with poor prognosis in some hematological malignancies, such as acute myeloid leukemia, diffuse large B cell lymphoma. However, little is known about the clinical significance of galectin-3 in patients with acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL). We investigated the concentration of serum galectin-3 and characterized the relationship between galectin-3 and outcome in patients with APL. Higher galectin-3 levels were detected in patients with APL compared with the healthy controls ( p < 0.001). Higher galectin-3 levels were closely associated with older ages ( p < 0.001), the medical history of psoriasis ( p = 0.036), coagulopathy ( p = 0.042), and CD34 expression ( p = 0.004). Compared with patients with lower galectin-3 levels, those with higher galectin-3 levels had significant shorter overall survival ( p = 0.028) and relapse-free survival ( p = 0.001). Multivariate analysis showed that serum galectin-3 was an independent unfavorable factor for relapse-free survival in patients with APL treated with all-trans retinoic acid and arsenic trioxide-based frontline therapy. Clinical impact of galectin-3 should be further investigated in patients with APL.