title: Down-regulation of tissue microRNA-126 was associated with poor prognosis in patients with cutaneous melanoma.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  MiR-126 is frequently downregulated in a variety of malignancies and acts as a potential tumor suppressor. It also played a tumor suppressor role in human melanoma through the direct or indirect repression of several key oncogenic molecules.
  
  
  METHODS
  qRT-PCR assay was performed to examine the expression of miR-126. Associations between miR-126 expression and various clinicopathological characteristics were analyzed using the χ(2) test. Survival rate was determined with Kaplan-Meier and statistically analyzed with the log-rank method between groups. Survival data were evaluated through multivariate Cox regression analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Significant differences for miR-126 expression were shown between dysplastic nevi and primary cutaneous melanoma (P<0.01), between primary melanoma and metastatic cutaneous melanomas (P<0.01), and between primary cutaneous melanomas and metastatic cutaneous melanomas (P<0.001). The patients with low miR-126 expression showed shorter 5-year overall survival than those with high miR-126 expression (P=0.039; log-rank test). Multivariate regression analysis showed that the status of miR-126 expression was an independent prognostic factor overall survival (HR=3.782, 95% CI: 2.479-16.334, P=0.005).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The status of miR-126 might be an independent prognostic factor for patients with cutaneous melanoma.
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology Wuhan 430022, Hubei, China.
authors.forename: Nengxing
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology Wuhan 430022, Hubei, China.
authors.forename: Yu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology Wuhan 430022, Hubei, China.
authors.forename: Xin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Lian
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology Wuhan 430022, Hubei, China.
authors.forename: Yating
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Tu
keywords: biomarker; cutaneous melanoma; microRNA-126; prognosis