The incidence and mortality of lung cancer account for first place all over the world.
Lung cancer lacks early diagnostic biomarkers; lung cancer patients are usually diagnosed
in both middle and advanced stages and have poor treatment outcomes. It is more important
to find the first diagnostic tools for lung cancer with high specificity and sensitivity.
Besides, exosomes are usually nanometer-sized bi-layered lipid vesicles formed and
produced by various types of cells. As one of the main modes of intercellular communication,
they can deliver multiple functional biomolecules, such as DNA, microRNAs, messenger
RNA (mRNA), long non-coding RNA, and proteins, and the events as mentioned above affects
different physiological processes of recipient cells. It has been reported that exosomes
are involved in different types of cancer, including lung cancer. Various studies
proved that exosomes are involved in multiple cancer processes such as cell proliferation,
metastasis, epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), angiogenesis, and the tumor microenvironment
in lung cancer. Tumor-derived exosomes (TEX) contain a variety of stimulatory and
inhibitory factors involved in regulating immune response, which can affect the tumor
microenvironment (TME) and thus participate in the formation and progression of lung
cancer. This review's primary purpose to review the latest research progress of exosomes
in diagnosing and treating lung cancer.