Enhancing cancer immunotherapy with nanomedicine

Therapeutic targeting of the immune system in cancer is now a clinical reality and marked successes have been achieved, most notably through the use of checkpoint blockade antibodies and chimeric antigen receptor T cell therapy. However, efforts to develop new immunotherapy agents or combination treatments to increase the proportion of patients who benefit have met with challenges of limited efficacy and/or significant toxicity. Nanomedicines — therapeutics composed of or formulated in carrier materials typically smaller than 100 nm — were originally developed to increase the uptake of chemotherapy agents by tumours and to reduce their off-target toxicity. Here, we discuss how nanomedicine-based treatment strategies are well suited to immunotherapy on the basis of nanomaterials’ ability to direct immunomodulators to tumours and lymphoid organs, to alter the way biologics engage with target immune cells and to accumulate in myeloid cells in tumours and systemic compartments. We also discuss early efforts towards clinical translation of nanomedicine-based immunotherapy. Getting medicines to the right place at the right time is key to their success. Nanomedicines — drugs formulated in carrier materials that are smaller than 100 nm — show promise in enhancing tumour immunotherapy, owing to the ability to focus their action on target tissues and control their immunomodulatory properties, as reviewed here.