Tracing extracellular vesicles' journey from cancer cells to urine

Cancer cell-derived small extracellular vesicles (sEVs) can travel from distant tumors through the bloodstream and kidneys and be excreted into urine, as reported by researchers at Science Tokyo. Using sophisticated molecular tagging systems in mouse models of brain, lung and pancreatic cancer, the researchers directly traced sEVs from tumors to urine. They also revealed that the kidney's glomerular cells actively transport sEVs across the filtration barrier, supporting their use in emerging urine-based cancer diagnostics.