Extracellular vesicles from plasma have higher tumour RNA fraction than platelets.

In addition to Circulating Tumour Cells (CTCs), cell-free DNA (cfDNA) and Extracellular Vesicles (EVs), the notion of "Tumour-Educated Platelets" (TEP) has recently emerged as a potential source of tumour-derived biomarkers accessible through blood liquid biopsies. Here we sought to confirm the suitability of the platelet blood fraction for biomarker detection in comparison to their corresponding EV fraction. As publications have claimed that tumour RNA and other tumour-derived material are transferred from tumour cells to the platelets and that tumour-derived transcripts can be detected in platelets, we chose to focus on RNA carrying a mutation as being of bona fide tumour origin.