Extracellular Vesicles in Cancer Detection: Hopes and Hypes

Cancer screening has substantially reduced cancer mortality but is limited by low compliance due to expense or resistance to the required procedure and any confirmatory tissue biopsies. Liquid biopsies employing extracellular vesicles can provide a wealth of tumor information and have the potential to replace conventional screening and increase compliance. Current biomarker discovery and validation efforts are limited by challenges associated with isolating and analyzing specific extracellular vesicle populations in lipid biopsies with current methods. Recent methylation and glycome analyses may provide valuable new information to improve tumor diagnosis and evaluate tumor type. New streamlined approaches that provide robust data and large well-designed validation are necessary for the future clinical translation of liquid biopsy-based cancer diagnostics. Early cancer diagnosis is critical for improving patient survival and mortality rates, but most diagnostics on solid tumors rely on imaging tests with limited sensitivity and specificity to identify potential cases, which are then confirmed by tissue biopsies. However, this process is usually not suitable for cancer screening or evaluation of tumor responses to treatment. Liquid biopsies have the potential to bridge this gap, but few such assays have been approved for cancer applications. Extracellular vesicles hold particular promise for liquid biopsy diagnostics but are currently limited by the lack of robust methods for isolation and analysis. New isolation and analysis techniques, however, show promise to improve the clinical utility of extracellular vesicle-based cancer diagnosis. Early cancer diagnosis is critical for improving patient survival and mortality rates, but most diagnostics on solid tumors rely on imaging tests with limited sensitivity and specificity to identify potential cases, which are then confirmed by tissue biopsies. However, this process is usually not suitable for cancer screening or evaluation of tumor responses to treatment. Liquid biopsies have the potential to bridge this gap, but few such assays have been approved for cancer applications. Extracellular vesicles hold particular promise for liquid biopsy diagnostics but are currently limited by the lack of robust methods for isolation and analysis. New isolation and analysis techniques, however, show promise to improve the clinical utility of extracellular vesicle-based cancer diagnosis.