Nogués, LauraBenito-Martin, AlbertoHergueta-Redondo, MartaPeinado, HéctorPeinado Selgas, Hector2025-01-202025-01-202018-04Mol Aspects Med . 2018 Apr:60:15-26.https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12105/26075Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are key mediators of intercellular communication that have been ignored for decades. Tumour cells benefit from the secretion of vesicles as they can influence the behaviour of neighbouring tumour cells within the tumour microenvironment. Several studies have shown that extracellular vesicles play an active role in pre-metastatic niche formation and importantly, they are involved in the metastatic organotropism of different tumour types. Tumour-derived EVs carry and transfer molecules to recipient cells, modifying their behaviour through a process defined as "EV-driven education". EVs favour metastasis to sentinel lymph nodes and distal organs by reinforcing angiogenesis, inflammation and lymphangiogenesis. Hence, in this review we will summarize the main mechanisms by which tumour-derived EVs regulate lymph node and distal organ metastasis. Moreover, since some cancers metastasize through the lymphatic system, we will discuss recent discoveries about the presence and function of tumour EVs in the lymph. Finally, we will address the potential value of tumour EVs as prognostic biomarkers in liquid biopsies, specially blood and lymphatic fluid, and the use of these tools as early detectors of metastases.We thank the members of Dr Peinado's and Dr Lyden's laboratory for helpful discussion of the scientific ideas, and we apologize to those authors not cited due to editorial limitations. The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of the following sources of funding: the US National Cancer Institute (CA169416), MINECO (SAF2014-54541-R), Asociacion Espanola Contra el Cancer, FERO foundation, WHRI Academy (People Programme (Marie Curie Actions) of the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under REA grant agreement no 608765), Worldwide Cancer Research and Fundacion Ramon Areces. We also thank the support of the MINECO-Red de Excelencia en Investigacion e Innovacion en Exosomas-REDiEX.enghttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/CancerExosomesExtracellular vesiclesMetastasisresearch articleAttribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International291960976015-26Mol Aspects Medhttps://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5856602/open access