Primary cutaneous T-cell lymphomas (CTCL) affect the skin and tend to transform and spread. CTCL involves primarily the Mycosis fungoides (MF) and more aggressive Sezary syndrome (SS). Oncogenic microRNAs (miRs) are stable epigenetic inhibitors often deregulated in the tumour and detectable as biomarkers in non-cellular fractions of peripheral blood. The tumour-specific expression of miR-155, miR-203, and miR-205 was shown to correctly diagnose CTCL. We herein asked whether these microRNAs can be used as plasma biomarkers for clinical CTCL monitoring. Patients with CTCL (n = 10) and controls with non-malignant conditions (n = 11) repeatedly donated plasma samples every ca. five months. MicroRNAs were detected in the plasma samples by specifically-primed RT-PCR followed by multivariate analyses of the miR expression dynamics. We herein established the plasma miR-classifier for detecting CTCL based on the miR-155 upregulation and miR-203/miR-205 downregulation with 100% specificity and 94% sensitivity. The 3-miR-score in the consecutive samples coincided with the clinical outcome of MF and SS patients such as the therapy response or changes in the clinical stage or tumor size. Quantitation of the selected microRNAs in plasma is a specific and straightforward approach for evaluating CTCL outcome representing, thus, a valuable tool for CTCL diagnostics and therapy response monitoring.

BIOCEV 1st Faculty of Medicine Charles University 25250 Vestec Czech Republic

Department of Dermatology and Venereology 1st Faculty of Medicine Charles University and General Hospital 12808 Prague Czech Republic

Department of Haematology 1st Faculty of Medicine Charles University and General Hospital 12808 Prague Czech Republic

Faculty of Mathematics and Physics Charles University 18675 Prague Czech Republic

Institute of Pathological Physiology 1st Faculty of Medicine Charles University 12853 Prague Czech Republic

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