The Prognostic Value of miR-125b, miR-200c and miR-205 in Primary Cutaneous Malignant Melanoma Is Independent of BRAF Mutational Status

Abstract

BRAF mutations are present in around 50% of cutaneous malignant melanomas and are related to a poor outcome in advanced-stage melanoma patients. miRNAs are epigenetic regulators that modulate different cellular processes in cancer, including melanoma development and progression. However, there are no studies on the potential associations of the genetic alterations of the BRAF gene with miRNA expression in primary cutaneous melanomas. Here, in order to analyze the influence of BRAF mutations in the ability of selected miRNAs to predict clinical outcome and patient survival at the time of diagnosis, we studied the prognostic value of miR-125b, miR-200c and miR-205 expression depending on the BRAF mutational status in fresh, frozen primary tumor specimens. For this purpose, RNA was extracted for studying both BRAF mutations by Sanger sequencing and miRNA expression. Our results indicate that, although there seems to be a slight preference for their predictive ability in the BRAF mutated group, the expression of these three miRNAs serves effectively to predict the clinical outcome of melanoma patients independently of BRAF mutational status at the time of primary tumor diagnosis.

Autophagy-Related MicroRNA: Tumor miR-125b and Thyroid Cancers

“…It is known that the tumor invasion is the cancer progression, associated with the intracellular signaling, transcription and growth factors changes [ 12 , 37 , 65 ] and reflected in the aggressive tumor behavior. In addition, a high hsa-miR-125b expression was associated with the BRAF V600E status, which was disclosed in the results of the experiment on melanoma in cell culture [ 17 ]. The study showed an association between the cancer mutational status and hsa-miR-125b expression.…”

“…An association between the miRNA’s rate and the BRAFV600E mutational status was found. It is a significant indicator of the aggressive PTC phenotype [ 17 ].…”