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Background and objective Galectin-3 is involved in many physical and pathologic process, and is closely correlated with tumorigenesis, development and metastasis. The aim of this study is to investigate the gene expression and significance of Galectin-3 in normal lung tissue and non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) tissue. Methods Gene expression was examined using the immunohistochemical S-P method in 62 NSCLC cases and in 17 cases with normal lung tissue. RT-PCR verified the expression of Galectin-3 at the transcriptional level. Results The expression rate of Galectin-3 in NSCLC tissue was 83.8% (52/62), which was significantly higher than that in normal lung tissue (P<0.01). Galectin-3 expression was not correlated with sex (χ2=0.113, P>0.05), age (χ2=0.220, P>0.05), and histological type (χ2=0.012, P>0.05), but was negatively correlated with pathological differentiation (r=-0.292, P<0.05) and positively correlated with the clinical stage (r=0.336, P<0.05) in NSCLC tissue. RT-PCR results showed that the expression level of Galectin-3 in NSCLC tissue was significantly higher than in normal lung tissue. Conclusion Galectin-3 may be useful in lung cancer diagnosis and may increase diagnosis rate when combined with other lung cancer markers.