Advances of New Extracellular Vesicle Isolation and Detection Technologies in Cancer Diagnosis

Abstract

Cancer is a global health issue threatening people's lives. Currently, cancer detection methods still have a lot of room for improvement in both efficiency and accuracy. The development and application of new technologies are urgently required for early cancer diagnosis and prognosis. Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are a type of phospholipid bilayer vesicle secreted by cells and play an important role in cancer development and metastasis. These small vesicles participate in cancer information transmission, antigen presentation, angiogenesis, immune response, tumor invasion, and mediate signaling pathways in the tumor microenvironment. Liquid biopsy of EV cargo contents is a fast‐developing research area, holding promise for early cancer diagnosis and monitoring cancer progression in real‐time. However, current EV detection technologies for clinical translation are still facing many challenges. Recent advancements in developing techniques for EV isolation and detection have made significant progress and are paving the way toward clinical application. Here, the advantages and limitations of traditional EV detection and isolation technologies in cancer diagnosis and prognosis are reviewed. The review also focuses on emerging EV detection and isolation technologies in cancer, discusses the challenges faced by current methods, and explores the perspective of new EV detection techniques for future cancer diagnosis.