Zihan Ren, Jingsi Cao, Lingwen Ding, Xin Liu, Yan Zhang
Department of Thoracic Surgery, Organ Transplantation Center, The First Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, Jilin, China.
Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, The Second Hospital of Hebei Medical University, Shijiazhuang, Hebei, China.
Front Pharmacol. 2024 Dec 17;15:1459938. doi: 10.3389/fphar.2024.1459938. eCollection 2024.
Esophageal cancer is a common and lethal digestive system malignancy, and both treatment efficacy and patient survival rates face significant challenges. In recent years, exosomes have emerged as crucial mediators of intercellular communication, demonstrating tremendous clinical potential, particularly in the diagnosis, treatment, and prognostic evaluation of esophageal cancer. These exosomes not only serve as biomarkers for early diagnosis and prognosis but also modulate tumor growth, metastasis, and drug resistance by delivering bioactive molecules. Importantly, exosomes can act as carriers for esophageal cancer-related therapeutic agents, optimizing gene therapy strategies to enhance efficacy while reducing toxicity and side effects. Despite facing challenges in clinical applications such as purification, enrichment, and standardization of analytical methods, exosomes maintain broad prospects for application in esophageal cancer treatment, with the potential to significantly improve patient outcomes and quality of life. This review focuses on the innovative role of exosomes in the early diagnosis of esophageal cancer, exploring their application value and safety in disease monitoring and assessment of treatment response. Furthermore, this study outlines the challenges and limitations of transitioning exosome research from basic studies to clinical applications, as well as potential solutions and future research directions to address these obstacles.
食管癌是一种常见且致命的消化系统恶性肿瘤，其治疗效果和患者生存率都面临重大挑战。近年来，外泌体已成为细胞间通讯的关键介质，展现出巨大的临床潜力，尤其是在食管癌的诊断、治疗和预后评估方面。这些外泌体不仅可作为早期诊断和预后的生物标志物，还能通过传递生物活性分子来调节肿瘤的生长、转移和耐药性。重要的是，外泌体可作为食管癌相关治疗药物的载体，优化基因治疗策略，提高疗效的同时降低毒性和副作用。尽管在临床应用中面临如纯化、富集和分析方法标准化等挑战，但外泌体在食管癌治疗中的应用前景广阔，有望显著改善患者的治疗效果和生活质量。本文综述聚焦于外泌体在食管癌早期诊断中的创新作用，探讨其在疾病监测和治疗反应评估中的应用价值及安全性。此外，本研究概述了将外泌体研究从基础研究转化为临床应用所面临的挑战和局限，以及应对这些障碍的潜在解决方案和未来研究方向。
