Page 530 - Read Online

Schulze et al. J Cancer Metastasis Treat 2020;6:42 Journal of Cancer
DOI: 10.20517/2394-4722.2020.79 Metastasis and Treatment

Review Open Access

A review on exosome-based cancer therapy

Alex Von Schulze, Fengyan Deng

Department of Molecular and Integrative Physiology, University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, KS 66160, USA.

Correspondence to: Dr. Fengyan Deng, Department of Molecular and Integrative Physiology, University of Kansas Medical
Center, Kansas City, KS 66160, USA. E-mail: fdeng@kumc.edu

How to cite this article: Schulze AV, Deng F. A review on exosome-based cancer therapy. J Cancer Metastasis Treat 2020;6:42.
http://dx.doi.org/10.20517/2394-4722.2020.79

Received: 6 Aug 2020 First Decision: 21 Sep 2020 Revised: 18 Oct 2020 Accepted: 27 Oct 2020 Published: 6 Nov 2020
Academic Editor: Robert J Griffin Copy Editor: Cai-Hong Wang Production Editor: Jing Yu

Abstract
Cancer is one of the leading causes of mortality and morbidity globally. Many types of cancer treatments have
been developed, such as chemotherapy, surgery, radiotherapy, and immunotherapy. However, these therapies
can also kill healthy cells and lead to severe side effects. Therefore, scientists are looking for new strategies to
eliminate cancerous cells specifically. Exosomes, nanometer-sized lipid bilayer-enclosed vesicles secreted from
various cell types, exist in nearly all body fluids, including blood, breast milk, saliva, urine, bile, pancreatic juice,
cerebrospinal, and peritoneal fluids. They carry myriad donor cell-derived bioactive molecules such as proteins,
lipids, and RNAs (including microRNA and lncRNA) and can deliver them to both nearby and distant recipient
cells. Due to these characteristics, exosomes have attracted great interest in cancer treatment (especially serving
as a biological carrier for some drugs, microRNA, lncRNA, inhibitors, and antibodies). In this paper, we will review
the current knowledge of exosome therapeutic applications in cancer.

Keywords: Exosomes, cancer, cancer therapy, gene carrier, drug carrier

INTRODUCTION
Cancer remains the leading cause of death globally. There are over 200 types of cancer which claim more
[1]
than 10 million lives annually . Despite a lot of research focusing on this grave disease, cancer therapeutics
still have the lowest clinical trial success rate of all major diseases. This is likely due to the fact that it is hard
for our immune system to distinguish cancerous cells from healthy cells. For instance, current therapeutics
[1]
like radiotherapy and chemotherapy not only kill the cancerous cells, but also healthy cells . Therefore,
developing new therapeutic strategies in order to precisely eliminate cancerous cells is an urgent need.

© The Author(s) 2020. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use,
sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, for any purpose, even commercially, as long
as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license,
and indicate if changes were made.

www.jcmtjournal.com