Introduction: Cutaneous melanoma is the deadliest form of skin cancer, with a dramatic increase in the incidence rate worldwide over the past decade. Early detection has been shown to improve the outcome of melanoma patients. The identification of noninvasive biomarkers able to identify melanoma at an early stage remains an unmet clinical need. Circulating miRNAs (c-miRNAs), small non-coding RNAs, appear as potential ideal candidate biomarkers due to their stability in biological fluids and easy detectability. Moreover, c-miRNAs are reported to be heavily deregulated in cancer patients.Areas covered: This review examines evidence of the specific c-miRNAs or panels of c-miRNAs reported to be useful in discriminating melanoma from benign cutaneous lesions.Expert opinion: Although the interesting reported by published studies, the non-homogeneity of detection and normalization methods prevents the individuation of single c-miRNA or panel of c-miRNAs that are specific for early detection of cutaneous melanoma. In the future, prospective wide and well-designed clinical trials will be needed to validate the diagnostic potential of some of the c-miRNA candidates in clinical practice.

中文翻译：

---

循环微RNA作为皮肤黑色素瘤早期诊断的生物标志物。

简介：皮肤黑色素瘤是最致命的皮肤癌形式，在过去十年中全球发病率急剧增加。早期发现已被证明可以改善黑色素瘤患者的预后。能够在早期识别黑色素瘤的非侵入性生物标志物的识别仍然是未满足的临床需求。循环 miRNA (c-miRNA)，小的非编码 RNA，由于其在生物体液中的稳定性和易检测性而成为潜在的理想候选生物标志物。此外，据报道，c-miRNA 在癌症患者中被严重放松管制。 涵盖的领域：本综述检查了据报道可用于区分黑色素瘤和良性皮肤病变的特定 c-miRNA 或 c-miRNA 组的证据。专家意见：虽然已发表研究报告的有趣之处，检测和标准化方法的非同质性阻止了单个 c-miRNA 或一组 c-miRNA 的个体化，这些 c-miRNA 对皮肤黑色素瘤的早期检测具有特异性。未来，将需要前瞻性的广泛和精心设计的临床试验来验证一些 c-miRNA 候选药物在临床实践中的诊断潜力。