Staging of melanoma and follow-up after melanoma diagnosis aim at predicting risk and detecting progression or recurrence at an early stage, respectively, in order to timely start and/or change treatment.
Tumor thickness, according to Breslow, the status of the sentinel node, and the value of the lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) are well-established prognostic markers for metastatic risk, but reliable biomarkers identifying early recurrence or candidates who may benefit best from medical treatment are still warranted. Liquid biopsy has emerged to be a suitable method for identifying biomarkers for early cancer diagnosis, prognosis, therapeutic response prediction, and patient follow-up.
In the article published in Frontiers in Medicine (https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmed.2023.1180799/full) the research group of the University of Trieste has explored the use of 7 miRNAs, namely hsa-miR-149-3p, hsa-miR-150-5p, hsa-miR-21-5p, hsa-miR-200c-3p, hsa-miR-134-5p, hsa-miR-144-3p and hsa-miR-221-3p in plasma exosomes to discriminate melanoma patients from controls without melanoma in a cohort of 92 individuals.
Their results showed that three out of seven miRNAs, namely hsa-miR-200c-3p, hsa-miR-144-3p, and hsa-miR-221-3p, were differentially expressed in plasma-derived exosomes from melanoma patients and controls. Furthermore, the expression of the three miRNAs may be a promising ancillary tool as a melanoma biomarker, even for discriminating between nevi and melanoma.