SCIENCE ASIA

Volume 47, No. 01, Month FEBRUARY, Year 2021, Pages 57 - 63

The value of exosomes in patients with laryngeal or hypopharyngeal cancer

Yuan-Jing Jia, Hui-Hua You,*, Shui-Hong Zhou

Abstract Download PDF

This study aimed to evaluate the relevance of exosomes in laryngeal or hypopharyngeal cancer. The peripheral blood from 22 patients with head or neck cancer and 11 normal subjects were retrospectively analyzed. The exosomes were extracted and the shape was observed through an electronic transmission microscope. Nanoparticle Tracking Analysis (NTA) was used to detect the particle concentration and particle size of the exosomes. The exosomes from the supernatant liquids of laryngeal cancer and hypopharyngeal cancer patients could be separated. They had a cup-shaped structure with the diameters within 30–100 nm. The protein concentration of exosomes from both types of cancer patients was significantly higher than from normal subjects (p < 0.05). Using western blot, Cluster of differentiation (CD) 63 and CD 81 were detected in the exosomes, but protein calnexin was not detected. The particle concentration of exosomes of the patients was not significantly different from normal subjects (p > 0.05). The particle diameter of exosomes from laryngeal cancer patients was larger than that from normal subjects (p > 0.05) while that from hypopharyngeal cancer patients was significantly larger (p < 0.01). In conclusion, exosomes were expected to be a potential non-invasive and simple tumor marker of body fluid for laryngeal or hypopharyngeal cancer.

Keywords

Laryngeal cancer, hypopharyngeal cancer, exosomes, tumor marker, malignant tumor

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