Serum miR-16: A Potential Biomarker for Predicting Melanoma Prognosis.

Melanoma is among the most malignant cancers with notorious aggressiveness, and its prognosis is greatly influenced by progression status. Serum microRNAs are small noncoding RNAs with high stability and easy accessibility in human blood. Their expression profiles are frequently dysregulated in cancers; hence, levels of serum microRNAs may reflect progression status and thus predict melanoma prognosis. In a hospital based case-control study, we found a significant reduction of serum miR-16 level in melanoma patients compared with cancer-free controls ( P P P  = 0.028), which independently evaluated patients' survival outcome. Finally, the suppressive role of miR-16 in melanoma growth was validated both in vitro and in vivo. In conclusion, we demonstrated that serum miR-16 is a potential biomarker for predicting melanoma prognosis.