Exosomal Functional Cargoes from Liquid Biopsy of Gastric Cancer: A Systematic Review of Studies With Potential Clinical Relevance

Abstract

Background/aim: Liquid biopsy (LB) is a promising non-invasive tool to detect cancer. Over the last few years, exosomes recruited from LB have attracted the attention of researchers for their involvement in cancer. We focused on the role of LB exosomes in gastric cancer (GC).

Materials and methods: We investigated the world literature on exosome-encapsulated functional biomarkers (non-coding RNAs and DNAs) taken from GC patients' LBs. Only the studies exploring serum, intraperitoneal fluid or gastric lavage were included.

Results: As of 2022, fifty articles with an overall count of 3552 GC patients were investigated. Given the statistically significant associations with the clinicopathological categories of tumor depth, lymph node metastasis, staging class and tumor size, most exosome-mediated microRNAs, long non-coding RNAs and circular RNAs proved to exert a potentially important bioclinical role in terms of diagnosis, screening, prognosis and therapeutic targets.

Conclusion: In the future, resorting to exosomal biomarkers taken from LB of affected patients could revolutionize the non-invasive fight against GC.

Keywords: DNA methylation; Exosomes; exo-DNA; exo-circRNA; exo-lncRNA; exo-miR; extracellular vesicles; gastric cancer; gastric juice; review.