The inner and outer qualities of extracellular vesicles for translational purposes in breast cancer

Abstract

Breast cancer (BC) is the second most common cause of cancer mortality of women worldwide. BC is a systemic disease with a highly heterogeneous course of disease. Therefore, prognostic and diagnostic biomarkers are required to improve the clinical risk management. Cancer-derived or cancer-associated extracellular vesicles (EVs) procured from the bloodstream of BC patients offer a novel platform for the qualitative and quantitative screening and establishment of biomarkers. Here, we focus on common aspects of EVs, on the function of BC-derived EVs and their translational potential considering the EV abundancy, intravesicular as well as outer membrane-anchored composition and current challenges of implementation in clinical practice.