Identification of potential blood-derived extracellular vesicles biomarkers to diagnose and predict distant metastases in ER+ breast cancer patients

Abstract The objective of this study was to identify potential extracellular vesicles (EV) which might serve as biomarkers for predictive and diagnostic purposes in metastatic breast cancer. Plasma samples from 7 different metastatic and non-metastatic ER+ (estrogen receptor -positive) breast cancer patients were collected, EV were isolated and their protein content analyzed by mass spectrometry and FunRich analysis. In this study we found several putative plasma EV biomarkers for metastatic ER+ breast cancer prediction and diagnosis, such as serum amyloid A1, known to promote widespread metastasis in a breast cancer animal model.