The expression of miR-211-5p in sentinel lymph node metastases of malignant melanoma is a potential marker for poor prognosis

Abstract

Metastatic primary cutaneous melanoma is a frequently fatal disease despite recent therapeutic advances. Biomarkers to stratify patients’ prognosis are lacking. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small, non-coding RNAs. We aimed to determine the expression of miR-211-5p in primary tumors and metastases of malignant melanoma and its potential use as a prognostic biomarker. We performed in situ hybridization for miRNA-211-5p on 109 FFPE melanoma samples from 76 patients, including 31 paired primary tumor/metastasis samples. For validation, we performed in silico analyses of TCGA skin cutaneous melanoma (SKCM) cohort. High miR-211-5p expression was more frequent in primary tumors (70.8%) compared to metastases (39.3%). In metastases, it was associated with a significantly worse overall survival. Data from TCGA SKCM cohort confirmed that high miR-211-5p expression in melanoma metastases, but not primary tumors, is associated with worse overall survival. MiR-211-5p expression in metastases is associated with a shorter survival, emphasizing the potential of miR-211-5p as a risk predictor for a less favorable clinical outcome in metastatic disease. In situ hybridization could be implemented in a routine laboratory workflow and can be performed on diagnostic tissue.