Extracellular Vesicles in Cancer Diagnosis and Therapy: Advances, Challenges, and Prospects for Clinical Translation

TL;DR

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are promising for cancer diagnosis and treatment due to their ability to carry biomolecules and their low immune response.

Contribution

The paper reviews recent advances in EV isolation, detection, and clinical applications, emphasizing the need for standardized methods and integration of lifestyle factors.

Findings

EVs can serve as noninvasive biomarkers for cancer detection and monitoring.

EVs can deliver therapeutic agents and enhance immunotherapy and RNA-based treatments.

Physical activity and nutrition influence EV biogenesis and cargo, impacting their clinical potential.

Abstract

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) have emerged as promising tools for cancer diagnosis and therapy owing to their excellent biocompatibility, low immunogenicity, and ability to transport diverse bioactive molecules. This review summarizes recent advances in EVs research, focusing on isolation and detection technologies, their diagnostic and therapeutic applications in oncology, and the key challenges limiting clinical translation. Conventional EVs isolation methods, including ultracentrifugation, density-gradient centrifugation, and polymer-based precipitation, are discussed alongside emerging strategies such as immunoaffinity enrichment, microfluidic separation, lipid-mediated isolation, and thermophoretic enrichment, with comparative evaluation of their yield, purity, cost, and scalability. In cancer diagnosis, EV-associated biomolecules, such as miRNAs, mRNAs, proteins, and lncRNAs, show strong potential as liquid biopsy biomarkers for noninvasive early detection and dynamic disease monitoring. In therapeutic contexts, EVs serve as versatile carriers for gene molecules, chemotherapeutic agents, and small-molecule drugs, and can enhance immunotherapy and RNA-based treatments. Importantly, EVs released from metabolically active tissues, particularly skeletal muscle, contribute to systemic immune regulation and metabolic homeostasis, and their biogenesis and molecular cargo can be influenced by physical activity and exercise-related nutritional status. These insights highlight the need to integrate microengineering technologies, biomolecular profiling, standardized manufacturing systems, and lifestyle-related factors such as exercise and nutrition to accelerate the clinical translation of EV-based strategies in precision oncology and regenerative medicine.

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