Research advances in exosomes as biomarkers for tumor diagnosis / 医学研究生学报

ABSTRACT

Malignancy is one of the leading causes of death worldwide. Effective screening and early diagnosis of tumors are clinically difficult. The existing tumor markers have low sensitivity and poor specificity. Exosomes, the nanoscale vesicles with a phospholipid bilayer structure, are widely distributed in various body fluids. Studies have shown that tumor-derived exosomes (TEXs) are closely related to the occurrence and progression of cancers. The contents of TEXs including proteins, RNA and DNA, glycoproteins, glycolipids and lipids can serve as highly sensitive tumor-specific markers, playing a crucial role in the basic research and clinical examination of cancers. Therefore, TEXs are expected to become new non-invasive tumor diagnostic biomarkers. This review describes the biological characteristics of exosomes, their advantages as diagnostic biomarkers and their applications in diagnosis of tumors, treatment monitoring and prognosis evaluation.