Expression of miR-203 is decreased and associated with the prognosis of melanoma patients.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs or miRs) are a class of small, non-coding RNAs that can regulate the gene expression in various diseases. MicroRNA-203 (miRNA-203 or miR-203) has previously shown significant alteration in a number of cancers. However, the clinical value of miR-203 in melanoma is rarely reported. The present study aimed to clarify the expression pattern and prognostic role of miR-203 in melanoma patients. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) analysis was used to characterize the expression level of miR-203 in 148 cases of melanoma tissues and adjacent non-cancerous tissues. Results showed that miR-203 expression was significantly decreased in melanoma tissues compared with that in adjacent non-cancerous tissues (P<0.05). Additionally, chi-square was performed to analyze the relationship between miR-203 and clinicopathological features and the down-regulation of miR-203 was significantly associated with tumor thickness and tumor stage (P<0.05). Moreover, Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that low miR-203 expression was associated with short overall survival time of patients. Multivariate analysis indicated that miR-203 could be an independent prognostic marker (P=0.003, HR=2.851, 95% CI=1.439-5.650) in melanoma This study for the first time provided evidence that miR-203 could be an independent potential prognostic marker for patients with melanoma, and might even become a new therapeutic target for the treatment of melanoma.