Published online Jan 26, 2019. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v7.i2.171
Peer-review started: October 25, 2018
First decision: November 28, 2018
Revised: December 27, 2018
Accepted: January 3, 2019
Article in press: January 3, 2019
Published online: January 26, 2019
Processing time: 93 Days and 22.1 Hours
Exosomes, which are widely distributed in body fluids, including blood, bile, urine and saliva, are microvesicles of 30-100 nm diameter in size. Cancer-derived exosomes carry a wide variety of DNA, RNA, proteins and lipids, and may serve as novel biomarkers in cancer.
Exosomes may function as exosomal biomarkers in cancer diagnosis and prognosis.
To summarize the performance of exosomal biomarkers in cancer diagnosis and prognosis.
Relevant studies in the literature were identified using the PubMed database. QUADAS-2 and REMARK were used to assess the quality of the included studies. For diagnostic biomarkers, 47 biomarkers and 2240 patients from 30 studies were included.
These exosomal biomarkers had excellent diagnostic ability in various types of cancer, with good sensitivity and specificity. A total of 50 biomarkers and 4797 patients from 42 studies were included for the prognostic markers. We observed that exosomal biomarkers had prognostic values in overall survival, disease-free survival and recurrence-free survival.
Exosomes could be potential biomarkers in cancer diagnosis and prognosis.
Further large prospective studies are needed to clarity the performance of exosomal biomarkers in cancer diagnosis and prognosis, through exosomes can be potential biomarkers in cancer diagnosis and prognosis.