Objective: The malignant skin melanoma is a deadliest skin tumor; however, it could be cured if diagnosed timely. MicroRNAs contribute to the control of cellular physiologic and pathologic procedures and many of them can act as oncogenes and tumor inhibitory factors. The current study aims at comparing the expression level of Mir-362 between the case and the control groups and evaluating its association with the clinicopathological features in patients with melanoma.

Patients and Methods: A total of 40 patients with melanoma and 10 healthy subjects in the control groups were enrolled. RNAs were extracted from the paraffinized tissue blocks. The expression of Mir-362 was assessed using the Real-time polymerase chain reaction. Glyceraldehyde phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) was used as an internal control.

Results: Mir-362 expression level was found six-fold higher in the case group, compared to that of the controls (p<0.05). No correlation was found between the expression of Mir-362 and other factors assessing in melanoma cases such as the Clark and Breslow indices, mitotic count, as well as demographic characteristics such as age and gender (p>0.05).

Conclusions: Owing to the up-regulation of Mir-362 expression in the patients with melanoma compared to the healthy subjects, Mir-362 expression could be used as a diagnostic and therapeutic marker for further investigations.