Abstract
Cancer immunotherapy has made rapid progress over the past decade leading to high enthusiasm and interest worldwide. Codelivery of immunomodulators with chemotherapeutic agents and radioisotopes has been shown to elicit a strong and sustained immune response in animal models. Despite showing promising results in metastatic and recurrent cancers, the utilisation of immunotherapy in clinical settings has been limited owing to uncertainties in elicited immune response and occurrence of immune-related adverse events. These uncertainties can be overcome with the help of nanoparticles possessing unique properties for the effective delivery of targeted agents to specific sites. Nanoparticles play a crucial role in the effective delivery of cancer antigens and adjuvants, modulation of tumour microenvironment, production of long-term immune response and development of cancer vaccines. Here, we provide a comprehensive summary of nanotechnology-based cancer immunotherapy and radiotherapy including basics of nanotechnology, properties of nanoparticles and various methods of employing nanoparticles in cancer treatment. Thus, nanotechnology is anticipated to overcome the limitations of existing cancer immunotherapy and to effectively combine various cancer treatment modalities.
Highlights
Cancer immunotherapy, which utilises the body’s own immune system to fight against tumour cells, has grown in importance over the past decade
Passive targeting is based on enhanced permeability and retention (EPR) effects, in which tumour cells selectively absorb nanoparticles, whereas, in active targeting, nanoparticles are coupled with ligands which interact with receptors over expressed in target sites
Nanotechnology-based drug delivery system has been utilised to enhance the efficacy of chemotherapy, radiotherapy and photodynamic therapy [29, 30]
Summary
Cancer immunotherapy, which utilises the body’s own immune system to fight against tumour cells, has grown in importance over the past decade. Passive targeting is based on enhanced permeability and retention (EPR) effects, in which tumour cells selectively absorb nanoparticles, whereas, in active targeting, nanoparticles are coupled with ligands which interact with receptors over expressed in target sites. Nanotechnology-based drug delivery system has been utilised to enhance the efficacy of chemotherapy, radiotherapy and photodynamic therapy [29, 30].
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