An epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition induced extracellular vesicle prognostic signature in non-small cell lung cancer

• DOI: 10.1038/s42003-022-04350-4
• Publication Date: 2023-01-18T12:03:04Z
• Authors: Richard J. Lobb; Kekoolani S. Visan; Li-Ying Wu; Emma L. Norris; Marcus L. Hastie; Sarah Everitt; Ian A. Yang; Rayleen V. Bowman; Shankar Siva; Jill E. Larsen; Jeffrey J. Gorman; Michael MacManus; Antoine Leimgruber; Kwun M. Fong; Andreas Möller
• Keywords: Extracellular vesicles; Extracellular Vesicles; Signature (topology)

Abstract Despite significant therapeutic advances, lung cancer remains the leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide 1 . Non-small cell (NSCLC) patients have a very poor overall five-year survival rate only 10–20%. Currently, TNM staging is gold standard for predicting and selecting optimal initial treatment options NSCLC patients, including those with curable stages disease. However, many locoregionally-confined relapse die despite curative-intent interventions, indicating need intensified, individualised therapies. Epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT), phenotypic depolarisation epithelial cells to elongated, mesenchymal cells, associated metastatic treatment-refractive cancer. We demonstrate here that EMT-induced protein changes in small extracellular vesicles are detectable prognostic significance. Overall, this work describes novel biomarker signature identifies potentially-curable at risk developing NSCLC, thereby enabling implementation personalised decisions.