Due to its broad involvement in promotion of almost all cancer hallmarks (Girotti et al. 2020) and its profound impact on cancer progression, metastasis and immune modulation, galectin-3 is now widely regarded as a very promising therapeutic target for cancer treatment (Liu and Rabinovich 2005; Ahmed et al. 2023; Dings et al. 2018). The gene discussed is LGALS3; the disease is cancer.