BackgroundStaging of melanoma and follow up after melanoma diagnosis aims at predicting risk and detecting progression or recurrence at early stage, respectively in order to timely start and/or change treatment. Tumor thickness according to Breslow, status of the sentinel node and value of the lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) are well-established prognostic markers for metastatic risk, but reliable biomarkers identifying early recurrence or candidates who may benefit best from medical treatment are still warranted. Liquid biopsy has emerged to be a suitable method for identifying biomarkers for early cancer diagnosis, prognosis, therapeutic response prediction, and patient follow-up. Liquid biopsy is a blood-based non-invasive procedure that allows analyzing circulating analytes, including extracellular vesicles.MethodsIn this study we have explored the use of 7 miRNAs, namelyhsa-miR-149-3p, hsa-miR-150-5p, hsa-miR-21-5p, hsa-miR-200c-3p,hsa-miR-134-5p, hsa-miR-144-3pandhsa-miR-221-3pin plasma exosomes to discriminate melanoma patients from controls without melanoma in a cohort of 92 individuals.Results and discussionOur results showed that three out seven miRNAs, namelyhsa-miR-200c-3p, hsa-miR-144-3pandhsa-miR-221-3pwere differentially expressed in plasma-derived exosomes from melanoma patients and controls. Furthermore, the expression of the three miRNAs may be a promising ancillary tool as a melanoma biomarker, even for discriminating between nevi and melanoma.