BioCentury
ARTICLE | Targets & Mechanisms

Exosome brainstorm

December 11, 2008 8:00 AM UTC

A Harvard team has shown that monitoring microvesicles called exosomes in serum could be useful for diagnosing glioblastoma and evaluating disease progression.1 The work has spawned a new cancer diagnostics company, Exosome Diagnostics Inc., which has started clinical trials of its diagnostic technique for colon cancer, melanoma and glioblastoma multiforme.

Exosomes, also known as oncosomes, are 30-100 nm in diameter. They are enclosed by membranes and contain tumor-associated proteins such as epidermal growth factor receptor variant III (EGFRvIII), which is found in about 50% of glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) tumors...