Extracellular vesicles (exosomes, in particular) are essential in multicellular organisms because they mediate cell-to-cell communication via the transfer of secreted molecules. They are able to shuttle different cargo, from nucleic acids to proteins. The role of exosomes has been widely investigated in solid tumors, which gave us surprising results about their potential involvement in pathogenesis and created an opening for liquid biopsies. Less is known about exosomes in oncohematology, particularly concerning the malignancies deriving from myeloid lineage. In this review, we aim to present an overview of immunomodulation and the microenvironment alteration mediated by exosomes released by malicious myeloid cells. Afterwards, we review the studies reporting the use of exosomes as disease biomarkers and their influence in response to treatment, together with the recent experiences that have focused on the use of exosomes as therapeutic tools. The further development of new technologies and the increased knowledge of biological (exosomes) and clinical (myeloid neoplasia) aspects are expected to change the future approaches to these malignancies.
Keywords: AML; CML; MPNs; exosomes; extracellular vesicles; hematological malignancies; leukemia; myeloid neoplasia.