Research status and progress of exosomes in pancreatic cancer

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is one of the worst digestive malignancies. The prognosis of this disease remains dismal since the facts that it is difficult to be diagnosed in early stage, has a low rate of surgical resection, and is not sensitive to conventional chemoradiotherapy. Exosomes are a kind of bilayer lipid bodies containing a variety of bioactive molecules, such as proteins, RNA, DNA, lipid, and exist stably in body fluids. As an important component in tumor microenvironment, exosomes are correlated with the malignant phenotype and chemoreistance of pancreatic cancer; as a potential diagnostic biomarker, exosome detection has potential application value in early diagnosis, efficacy evaluation, and tumor recurrence monitoring of pancreatic cancer. Key words: Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma; Exosome; Tumor microenvironment; Biomarker