Extracellular vesicle miRNAs for predicting the efficacy of late-line treatment with anlotinib in patients with lung adenocarcinoma

Background Anlotinib is a targeted therapy indicated for some malignancies, including advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). However, noninvasive biomarkers for identifying patients who will benefit from this disease remain lacking. Methods Here, we investigated the potential of small extracellular vesicle (sEV) microRNAs (miRNAs) as predictive biomarkers for anlotinib efficacy. A total of 20 advanced NSCLC patients were enrolled. Patients were classified as having stable disease (SD) or progressive disease (PD) after the initial efficacy assessment. Results Seven differentially expressed miRNAs (DEMs) were identified. Among them, miR-941 was significantly upregulated in the PD group, while the others were downregulated. Furthermore, these six downregulated miRNAs (miR-30a-3p, miR-150-5p, miR-122-5p, miR-10b-5p, miR-92a-3p, and miR-150-3p) were more pronounced in nonsmoking patients. Conclusions It was found that sEV miRNAs have the potential to predict the benefit of anlotinib.