BACKGROUND

The incidence and mortality of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) are increasing recently. Most patients with PDAC are diagnosed at advanced stage because of the high invasiveness of cancer cells and the lack of typical early symptoms. Therefore, early diagnosis of PDAC is very important to improve the prognosis. Exosomes play crucial role in intercellular communication and deliver the contents to recipient cells to regulate their biological behaviors. Recent evidence suggests emerging role of exosomes in the carcinogenesis of a variety of cancers including PDAC. Long noncoding RNAs (LncRNAs) have been reported to be involved in the development of PDAC. It has been proved that LncRNAs have the potential to be biomarkers and therapeutic targets for PDAC. Moreover, increasing number of studies focus on the role of exosomal LncRNAs in PDAC.

SUMMARY

In this review, we summarize the current status on our understanding of the role of exosomal-derived LncRNAs in the progression and metastasis of PDAC.

KEY MESSAGES

We focus on challenges in the potential of exosomal-derived LncRNAs as novel diagnostic and prognostic markers and therapeutic targets of PDAC. In addition, we provide an overview about the demonstrated important role of exosomal LncRNAs in the progression of PDAC.