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Medical AI Inquiry: You was designed to assist in medical decision-making based on the provided user questions. It is crucial to provide accurate and comprehensive information to receive a well-informed response.  Labels: OBJECTIVE, METHODS, RESULTS. Meshes: Autoantibodies, Breast Neoplasms, Cell Adhesion, Cell Line, Tumor, Colonic Neoplasms, Endothelium, Endothelium, Vascular, Female, Galectin 2, Galectin 4, Humans, Male, Mucin-1, Neoplasm Metastasis, Neoplastic Cells, Circulating.
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Are serum galectin-2 , -4 , and -8 greatly increased in colon and breast cancer patients and promote cancer cell adhesion to blood vascular endothelium? Context: Adhesion of disseminating tumor cells to the blood vascular endothelium is a pivotal step in metastasis. Previous investigations have shown that galectin-3 concentrations are increased in the bloodstream of patients with cancer and that galectin-3 promotes adhesion of disseminating tumor cells to vascular endothelium in vitro and experimental metastasis in vivo. This study determined the levels of galectin-1, -2, -3, -4, -8, and -9 in the sera of healthy people and patients with colon and breast cancer and assessed the influence of these galectins on cancer-endothelium adhesion. Serum galectins and auto-anti-MUC1 antibodies were assessed using ELISA and mucin protein (MUC1) glycan microarrays, and cancer-endothelium adhesion was determined using monolayers of human microvascular lung endothelial cells. The levels of serum galectin-2, -3, -4, and -8 were significantly increased up to 31-fold in patients with cancer and, in particular, those with metastases. As previously shown for galectin-3, the presence of these galectins enhances cancer-endothelium adhesion by interaction with the Thomsen-Friedenreich (TF; Galβ1,3GalNAcα-) disaccharide on cancer-associated MUC1. This causes MUC1 cell surface polarization, thus exposing underlying adhesion molecules that promote cancer-endothelium adhesion. Elevated circulating galectin-2 levels were associated with increased mortality in patients with colorectal cancer, but this association was suppressed when anti-MUC1 antibodies with specificity for the TF epitope of MUC1 were also present in the circulation.
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Increased circulation of several members of the galectin family is common in patients with cancer and these may, like circulating galectin-3, also be involved in metastasis promotion. Final Decision: yes