LGALS3 and cancer: Extracellular Gal-3 could modulate adhesion of cells to the extracellular matrix, increase tumor cell homotypic aggregation, heterotypic aggregation between tumor cells with blood vascular endothelium and induce angiogenesis in vivo and in vitro through binding with the corresponding receptors on the cell surface, which are all vital steps in the progression of cancer cell metastasis (1, 8, 9, 20).