Exosome是由几乎所有活性细胞分泌的纳米级胞外囊泡，其形成于多泡体和质膜的融合，并释放到周围体液中。Exosome能够将细胞特异性成分从源细胞转运至目标细胞。考虑到其作为非侵入性诊断生物标志物和治疗纳米载体的巨大潜力，总结的证据表明exosome在预后、诊断甚至治疗策略中发挥着重要作用。虽然多篇综述已集合exosome在生物医学应用方面的信息，但对于在癌症疗效学中如何利用这些囊泡的有益应用的最新和改进的方法进行全面回顾是不可或缺的。本文首先综述了exosome的引入情况，包括其发现、分离、表征、功能、发生和分泌等。随后详细讨论了exosome作为有前途的药物和基因输送纳米载体、应用exosome抑制剂管理癌症、已完成和正在进行的关于exosome生物相关性的临床试验的意义。随着exosome研究领域的发展，更好地理解exosome分泌和靶向特定细胞的亚细胞部件和机制，有助于确定它们在身体中的确切生理功能。©2023。作者独家授权Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany，Springer Nature的一部分。

Exosomes are nanosized extracellular vesicles secreted by nearly all viable cells following the fusing of multivesicular bodies and the plasma membrane and discharged into the encircling bodily fluids. Exosomes can transport cell-specific components from the source cell to the target cell. Given the enormous potential of exosomes as non-invasive diagnostic biomarkers and therapeutic nanovehicles. Lately, accumulated evidence has demonstrated that exosomes serve an important role in prognosis, diagnosis, and even treatment strategies. While several reviews have collective information on the biomedical application of exosomes, a comprehensive review incorporating updated and improved methodologies for beneficial applications of such vesicles in cancer theranostics is indispensable. In the current review, we first provided a comprehensive review of the introduction of exosomes, featuring their discovery, separation, characterization, function, biogenesis, secretion. The implications of exosomes as promising nanovehicles for drug and gene delivery, application of exosome inhibitors in the management of cancers, completed and ongoing clinical trials on the biological relevance of exosomes are then discussed in detail. As the field of exosome research grows, a better understanding of the subcellular parts and mechanisms involved in exosome secretion and targeting of specific cells will help figure out what their exact physiological functions are in the body.© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.