MicroRNA profiling for diagnosis of dysplastic nevi and melanoma

A method for distinguishing melanoma cells from normal and dysplastic nevi cells in a skin lesion sample from a subject, comprising:

• (a) amplifying nucleic acids from the skin lesion sample;
• (b) assaying the expression level of one or more miRNAs in the skin lesion sample, wherein the one or more miRNAs comprise miR-339-5p, miR-15b, miR-572, miR-425, miR-1202, HBII-382_s, miR-1225-5p, miR-30c, miR-106b-star, miR-125a-5p, mgU6-53B, miR-25, miR-939, miR-92b-star, miR-500-star, miR-22, HBII-142_x, miR-181b, HBII-142, miR-663, miR-1224-5p, HBII-85-6_x, miR-1301, miR-345, miR-30a-star, ENSG00000202327, miR-92a, miR-127-3p, HBII-85-26, miR-31, miR-921, miR-146b-5p, miR-768-3p, miR-708, miR-139-5p, ACA24_x, miR-501-3p, or miR-502-3p;
• (c) quantitatively comparing the levels of the one or more miRNAs in the skin sample as assayed in (a) to the levels of corresponding miRNA(s) in a normal skin or nevus reference sample;
• and
• (d) identifying the skin lesion sample as containing:
• (i) melanoma cells if the levels of the one or more miRNAs in the skin lesion sample differ from the normal skin or nevus reference sample, wherein the level of miR-339-5p, miR-15b, miR-425, miR-30c, miR-106b-star, miR-125a-5p, miR-25, miR-500-star, miR-22, miR-1301, miR-345, miR-30a-star, miR-181b, miR-92a, miR-127-3p, miR-31, miR-146b-5p, miR-708, miR-139-5p, ACA24_x, miR-501-3p, miR-502-3p are increased and the level of miR-572, miR-1202, HBII-382_s, miR-1225-5p, mgU6-53B, miR-939, miR-92b-star, HBII-142_x, HBII-142, miR-663, miR-1224-5p, HBII-85-6_x, ENSG00000202327, HBII-85-26, miR-921, miR-768-3p are decreased relative to the normal skin or nevus reference sample, or
• (ii) not melanoma cells if the levels of the one or more miRNAs in the skin lesion sample do not differ from the normal skin or nevus reference sample.