Identification of prognostic mRNAs in metastatic cutaneous melanoma

Cutaneous melanoma is the most common cause of skin cancer-related deaths worldwide. There is an urgent need to identify prognostic biomarkers to facilitate decision-making for treatment of metastatic cutaneous melanoma. Gene expression microarrays and RNA-seq technology have recently improved or changed current prognostic and therapeutic strategies for several cancers. However, according to the current melanoma staging system, prognosis is almost entirely dependent on clinicopathological features. To identify novel prognostic biomarkers, we investigated gene expression and clinical data for patients with cutaneous melanoma from three cohorts of The Cancer Genome Atlas and Gene Expression Omnibus. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis using median values of each gene as cutoff value revealed that nine genes (ABCC3, CAPS2, CCR6, CDCA8, CLU, DPF1, PTK2B, SATB1, and SYNE1) were statistically significant prognostic biomarkers of metastatic cutaneous melanoma in all three independent cohorts. Low expression of two genes (CDCA8 and DPF1) and high expression of seven genes (ABCC3, CAPS2, CCR6, CLU, PTK2B, SATB1, and SYNE) were significantly associated with positive metastatic cutaneous melanoma prognoses. In conclusion, we suggest nine novel prognostic biomarkers for cutaneous metastatic melanoma.