Extracellular Vesicles (EVs) are released by all cells, and were originally thought to simply remove unwanted waste. However, despite their tiny size, EVs are now known to carry genetic information from one cell population to another, and throughout the bloodstream. As a result, they actually have a number of important functions in health and disease. The content of EVs depends on the cell from which they are released. Therefore it is thought that cancer cells release EVs with specific contents into the bloodstream. This study will focus on the specific signature of EVs in serum of breast cancer patients compared to healthy control individuals, to determine if they could be used as blood-based markers of disease. There is exciting potential to isolate EVs from the blood stream of breast cancer patients to diagnose the cancer, and perhaps identify the subtype of breast cancer and determine the best treatment option for the patient. We are fortunate to have access to a Biobank of >1200 serum samples from breast cancer patients, which were attained over many years with ethical approval and patient consent. This group has already identified some targets of interest using models of disease and so in the proposed study we can rapidly assess whether they are relevant in the patient setting, and whether they are linked to disease status, breast cancer type, or patient outcome. This could potentially support early detection of breast cancer, improving patient prognosis and reducing death from advanced disease.
