Date: March 19, 2019  
Source: School of Medicine

The latest research findings of a JNU research group led by Prof. Zhang Hao have been published in Clinical Cancer Research (JCR1, IF: 10.199), the official journal of the American Association for Cancer Research. Exosomes contains a wide range of RNA (ribonucleic acid).

Among the three testing items of liquid biopsies, the advantages of exosomes have become increasingly prominent. Compared with traditional blood specimens, saliva biopsies have gained unique merits in tumor detection, such as easier sampling, complete non-invasiveness and prevention of blood-borne infections. Zhang's team uses salivary exosome to detect tumoral chimeric RNA, providing a new approach to research into exosomal liquid biopsies of malignant tumors with high incidence in China, such as esophageal cancer.

Zhang is a member of the standing committee of the Tumor Biomarker Committee of the China Anti-Cancer Association, co-chairman of its Exosome Expert Committee and leader of the first panel called Consensus Statement on Exosomes in Research and Clinical Transformation in China or abroad. The research team also includes the Cancer Hospital of Shantou University Medical College, the Anyang Tumor Hospital, the MD Anderson Cancer Center at the University of Texas and the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Paper link:
http://clincancerres.aacrjournals.org/content/early/2019/02/09/1078-0432.CCR-18-3169