Extracellular vesicles in the treatment and diagnosis of breast cancer: a status update

Front Endocrinol (Lausanne). 2023 Jul 17:14:1202493. doi: 10.3389/fendo.2023.1202493. eCollection 2023.

Abstract

Breast cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer-related death in women. Currently, the treatment of breast cancer is limited by the lack of effectively targeted therapy and patients often suffer from higher severity, metastasis, and resistance. Extracellular vesicles (EVs) consist of lipid bilayers that encapsulate a complex cargo, including proteins, nucleic acids, and metabolites. These bioactive cargoes have been found to play crucial roles in breast cancer initiation and progression. Moreover, EV cargoes play pivotal roles in converting mammary cells to carcinogenic cells and metastatic foci by extensively inducing proliferation, angiogenesis, pre-metastatic niche formation, migration, and chemoresistance. The present update review mainly discusses EVs cargoes released from breast cancer cells and tumor-derived EVs in the breast cancer microenvironment, focusing on proliferation, metastasis, chemoresistance, and their clinical potential as effective biomarkers.

Keywords: biomarkers; breast cancer; chemoresistance; extracellular vesicles; metastasis; proliferation.

Publication types

  • Review
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Biomarkers / metabolism
  • Breast Neoplasms* / diagnosis
  • Breast Neoplasms* / metabolism
  • Breast Neoplasms* / therapy
  • Carcinogenesis / metabolism
  • Cell Communication
  • Extracellular Vesicles* / metabolism
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Tumor Microenvironment

Substances

  • Biomarkers

Grants and funding

This study was supported by Doctoral Start-up Foundation of Liaoning Province (2023-BS-048).