Progress of Tumor-Derived Exosomes in Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Abstract

Exosomes are extracellular vesicles 40 to 160 nm in diameter that mainly mediate information transmission and substance exchange between cells, and increasing evidence suggests that exosomes are involved in the development of tumors and have great potential in cancer diagnosis and treatment. Squamous cell carcinoma of head and neck is one of the common malignant tumors in the whole body. Although various treatments continue to develop, the 5-year survival rate remains only 50%, which may be related to its characteristics such as easy lymphatic metastasis, chemotherapy resistance and poor radiotherapy sensitivity. Researchers are paying more and more attention to TDE, and studies connected to it have significantly improved our understanding of the causes, development, diagnosis, and prognosis of HNSCC. Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma-derived exosomes involve tumor initiation, progression, immune regulation, diagnosis and treatment application, and are anticipated to serve as therapeutic targets and biomarkers for early tumor diagnosis, and new ideas for improving the survival rate and prognosis of patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma are provided by their related studies. Here, in order to bring our knowledge of exosomes derived from head and neck squamous cell carcinoma up to date, we examine the development of research on tumor-derived exosomes in the disease.