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Extracellular vesicles (EVs)‐based intercellular communication (through exosomes, microvesicles, and apoptotic bodies) is conserved across all kingdoms of life. In recent years, exosomes have gained much attention for targeted pharmaceutical administration due to their unique features, nanoscale size, and capacity to significantly contribute to cellular communication. As drug delivery vehicles, exosomes have several advantages over alternative nanoparticulate drug delivery technologies. A key advantage lies in their comparable makeup to the body's cells, which makes them non‐immunogenic. However, exosomes vesicles face several challenges, including a lack of an effective and standard production technique, decreased drug loading capacity, limited characterization techniques, and underdeveloped isolation and purification procedures. Exosomes are well known for their long‐term safety and natural ability to transport intercellular nucleic acids and medicinal compounds across the blood‐brain‐barrier (BBB). Therefore, in addition to revealing new insights into exosomes' distinctiveness, the growing availability of new analytical tools may drive the development of next‐generation synthetic systems. Herein, light is shed on exosomes as drug delivery vehicles in anti‐infective therapy by reviewing the literature on primary articles published between 2002 and 2023. Additionally, the benefits and limitations of employing exosomes as vehicles for therapeutic drug delivery are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: There are many lacunae in our current understanding of the shifting epidemiological trends of lung cancer as well as lack of data among Northeast Indian patients. Aims and Objectives: This study tried to assess the clinicodemographic and treatment outcomes of advanced lung cancer cases. Materials and Methods: This was a retrospective hospital-based study. Patients with histopathologically confirmed locally advanced and metastatic lung cancer and were registered at Dr. Bhubaneswar Borooah Cancer Institute between January and December 2017 who were included in the study. A record was made of patient demographic-, clinical-, and treatment-related parameters. Kaplan-Meier survival curves were obtained. A two-tailed P<0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: Majority of the patients were elderly males (median=60 years), with a history of smoking in three quarter of them. Non-small-cell lung carcinoma (94%) type was the most common histology. About 93% of patients presented with TNM stage IV disease. The most common palliative chemotherapy (CT) regimen used was taxanes and platinum doublet (n=24, 35%). With a median follow-up of 6 months (range 0-37), the median progression-free survival and overall survival were 8 months and 10 months, respectively. The median survival was significantly longer in patients younger than 60 years. (13 months; P=0.021) and in those with nonsmall-cell histology (10 months). Conclusion: In this audit of resource-limited population with advanced lung cancer, palliative CT remains the mainstay of treatment. There is a further need to improve the survival of these advanced cases in a cost-effective manner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]