La Camera Giusi, Gelsomino Luca, Caruso Amanda, Panza Salvatore, Barone Ines, Bonofiglio Daniela, Andò Sebastiano, Giordano Cinzia, Catalano Stefania
Department of Pharmacy, Health and Nutritional Sciences, University of Calabria, Via P. Bucci, 87036 Arcavacata di Rende, CS, Italy.
Centro Sanitario, University of Calabria, Via P. Bucci, 87036 Arcavacata di Rende, CS, Italy.
Cancers (Basel). 2021 Mar 8;13(5):1160. doi: 10.3390/cancers13051160.
Breast cancer is the most common solid malignancy diagnosed in females worldwide, and approximately 70% of these tumors express estrogen receptor α (ERα), the main biomarker of endocrine therapy. Unfortunately, despite the use of long-term anti-hormone adjuvant treatment, which has significantly reduced patient mortality, resistance to the endocrine treatments often develops, leading to disease recurrence and limiting clinical benefits. Emerging evidence indicates that extracellular vesicles (EVs), nanosized particles that are released by all cell types and responsible for local and systemic intercellular communications, might represent a newly identified mechanism underlying endocrine resistance. Unraveling the role of EVs, released by transformed cells during the tumor evolution under endocrine therapy, is still an open question in the cancer research area and the molecular mechanisms involved should be better defined to discover alternative therapeutic approaches to overcome resistance. In this review, we will provide an overview of recent findings on the involvement of EVs in sustaining hormonal resistance in breast cancer and discuss opportunities for their potential use as biomarkers to monitor the therapeutic response and disease progression.
乳腺癌是全球女性中诊断出的最常见实体恶性肿瘤，其中约70%的肿瘤表达雌激素受体α（ERα），这是内分泌治疗的主要生物标志物。不幸的是，尽管使用了长期抗激素辅助治疗，这已显著降低了患者死亡率，但内分泌治疗的耐药性仍经常出现，导致疾病复发并限制了临床获益。新出现的证据表明，细胞外囊泡（EVs），即由所有细胞类型释放并负责局部和全身细胞间通讯的纳米级颗粒，可能代表了一种新发现的内分泌耐药机制。阐明内分泌治疗期间肿瘤演变过程中转化细胞释放的EVs的作用，仍是癌症研究领域的一个悬而未决的问题，其中涉及的分子机制应得到更好的定义，以发现克服耐药性的替代治疗方法。在这篇综述中，我们将概述关于EVs参与维持乳腺癌激素耐药性的最新研究结果，并讨论其作为生物标志物监测治疗反应和疾病进展的潜在用途的机会。
