Nanomedicine revolutionizing cancer immunotherapy: recent advancements in nanotechnological strategies and applications

Abstract

The convergence of nanotechnology and cancer immunotherapy represents a promising frontier in the fight against cancer, offering new avenues for enhancing therapeutic efficacy and precise personalized cancer treatments. This review presents recent advancements in nanomedicine that strategically target and modulate various immune cells to enhance anti-tumor responses and overcome barriers posed by the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment for cancer treatment. By exploring advance strategies such as photoimmunotherapy, sonodynamic therapy, therapeutic nanovaccines, and surface-modified immune cells, we highlight how nanoparticles can go beyond drug delivery to actively reprogram immune pathways. Despite significant advances in cancer immunotherapy, current nanomedicine approaches struggle with poor targeting, immune evasion, systemic toxicity, etc. This review highlights recent breakthroughs that address these challenges by focusing on treatment that are induced using effective immune cells, innovative approaches to tumor reduction through targeted drug delivery systems, the development of enhanced combinational immunotherapy techniques, and the modification of immune cells using nanoparticles to enhance their anti-tumor activity through immune cell-specific strategies. These nanotechnological innovations hold the potential to overcome existing limitations in cancer immunotherapy, paving the way for more effective and personalized treatments to reshape cancer immunotherapy through synergistic, targeted, and immune-responsive strategies.