Nanotechnology-Empowered Combination Cancer Immunotherapies: Mechanisms, Synergies, and Perspectives

This review is aiming to systematically elucidate the unique role of nanotechnology in optimizing therapeutic modalities for combinatorial cancer immunotherapy, which enables the synergistic integration of multiple treatment strategies. In particular, nanotechnology has enabled the synergistic combination of immunotherapy with physical therapies, chemotherapy, metal therapy, and nucleic acid therapy. In each combination regimen, nanocarriers play multifaceted roles by achieving targeted codelivery of different therapeutics and optimizing each individual treatment modality. This offers new paradigms to guide precision medicine in cancer treatment. Immunotherapy alone is unlikely to achieve personalized precision medicine for cancer, and new treatment modalities are needed in the future. To overcome technical bottlenecks and realize precise regulation of the tumor microenvironment for personalized cancer treatment, it is crucial to develop novel nanosystems with integrated sensing, targeting, and therapeutic functionalities. This review presents a comprehensive overview of recent advancements in integrating nanotechnology with immunotherapy for cancer treatment, leading to synergistic therapeutic outcomes through the codelivery of immunotherapeutics using various types of nanocarriers. These nanosystems seamlessly integrate sensing, targeting, controlled release, and imaging functionalities to optimize microenvironment remodeling and treatment efficacy, which offer a novel paradigm for personalized precision immuno-oncology.image (c) 2024 WILEY-VCH GmbH