Cancer cell communication through extracellular vesicles: Trading traits in the tumor microenvironment

Tumors are heterogeneous, they consist of cells with different characteristics. These different cells can communicate with each other through direct cell-cell contacts and soluble molecules, but also via small extracellular vesicles that contain a ‘message’ for another cell. This message consists of a variety of molecules, including proteins, RNA and DNA. Through this communication, cancer cells can benefit from each other’s characteristics; some studies suggest that cancer cells can be protected from cancer treatment by other, more resistant cancer cells, and others suggest that heterogeneous tumors can grow and metastasize faster because the cells within the tumor can instruct each other.