Abstract
In recent decades, the study of exosome biology has gained growing interest, representing an active area of cancer research with many potential clinical applications. Exosomes are small lipid bilayer particles released by cells with pleiotropic functions that have been reported to regulate the complex intracellular pathway involved in all steps of breast cancer development—from initiation to progression toward a metastatic dissemination. Particularly, the role of these microvesicles has been explored in metastasis, which represents the leading cause of breast cancer morbidity and mortality worldwide. Reports highlight that the plasticity of breast cancer cells, fundamental for the establishment of distant metastasis, may be in part attributed to exosome-carried signals shared between adjacent cells and long-distance cells in the body. In the present review, we will discuss the functions of exosomes in the metastatic breast cancer process and secondary site outgrowth. The possibility to decode the exosome functions in advanced diseases may offer new opportunities for early detection, molecular targeted therapies and exosome-based therapeutics in breast cancer.
Highlights
Female breast cancer accounts for 11.6% of the total cancer incidence burden and for 6.6% of the cancer-related deaths burden worldwide
A large amount reported that the dynamic interaction of breast cancer metastasis, largely demonstrated to mediate many of the the different cell types in the and localexosomes as well as have in thebeen distant tumor microenvironment regulates various involved
Breast cancer metastasis, and exosomes exosomes have beendirectly largelyparticipate demonstrated to mediate many of involved processes
Summary
Female breast cancer accounts for 11.6% of the total cancer incidence burden and for 6.6% of the cancer-related deaths burden worldwide. It is the most common cancer among women, with more than 2 million (24.2%) newly diagnosed cases in both developed and developing countries, and represents the leading cause of cancer mortality; more than 0.6 million (15.0%) women died in 2018 as reported in the GLOBOCAN database [1]. Cancers 2020, 12, 2179 metastasis at secondary sites, mainly responsible for patient mortality This is the reason why a large amount of research is currently focused on improving the knowledge on the biological and molecular mechanisms underlying the metastatic processes in breast cancer. In the present review, findings related to EVs in the context of metastatic breast cancer were reported
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