Liquid biopsy: Exosomal microRNAs as novel diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers in cancer

BACKGROUND: Detecting cancer at an early stage before clinical manifestation could be an effective strategy to decrease cancer mortality. Thus, identifying liquid biopsy biomarkers with high efficacy could be a promising approach for non-invasive diagnosis of cancer. MAIN TEXT: Liquid biopsies are increasingly used as a supplement to biopsy, as it enables disease progression to be detected months before clinical and radiographic confirmation. Many bodily fluids contain exosomal microRNAs (miRNAs) which could provide a new class of biomarkers for early and minimally invasive cancer diagnosis due to the stability of miRNAs in exosomes. In this review, we mainly focused on the exosomal miRNAs (liquid biopsy) as biomarkers in the diagnosis and prognosis of various cancers. CONCLUSION: Exosomal miRNAs can be used as diagnostic and prognosis biomarkers that provide unique insights and a more dynamic perspective of the progression and therapeutic responses in various malignancies. Therefore, the development of novel and more sensitive technologies that exploit exosomal miRNAs should be a priority for cancer management.