Aug 2026· Journal of the Egyptian National Cancer Institute· Vol 38· 0 citations· 218 references
Medicine
TL;DR
This review discusses current nanotechnology-based immunotherapies and highlights the emerging role of integrating AI in vaccine development as next-generation strategies for improving outcomes in brain cancer treatment.
Abstract
Brain cancer is one of the most challenging malignancies and a major contributor to worldwide morbidity and mortality. Glioblastoma, the most aggressive adult brain tumor, is associated with poor prognosis despite conventional therapies such as surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy, which often result in severe toxicity and long-term side effects. Immunotherapy holds the potential to provide durable and specific anti-tumor responses; however, its success in brain cancer is hindered by obstacles such as the blood-brain barrier, immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment, and tumor heterogeneity. Nanomedicine offers a powerful approach to overcoming these barriers through targeted and efficient drug delivery. Nanotechnology-based platforms, including lipid-based, polymeric, and inorganic nanoparticles, have demonstrated superior therapeutic efficacy compared to free drugs, with several formulations advancing into clinical trials. Among these, nanotechnology-enabled vaccines represent an emerging frontier, capable of enhancing antigen presentation, stimulating strong immune responses, and overcoming tumor-induced immunosuppression. By combining the precision of nanocarriers with the long-lasting protection of vaccines, nano-vaccines hold great potential to transform brain cancer immunotherapy. Recent studies also suggest that integrating artificial intelligence (AI) with nanotechnology could further enhance the design, targeting, and effectiveness of immunotherapies. Moreover, AI is revolutionizing treatment development by enabling the prediction of immunogenicity, immune responses, and optimizing formulation design and dosing strategies. These advancements collectively accelerate the development and enhance the precision and efficiency of immunotherapy. Hence, this review discusses current nanotechnology-based immunotherapies and highlights the emerging role of integrating AI in vaccine development as next-generation strategies for improving outcomes in brain cancer treatment.
Glioblastoma (GBM) remains one of the most lethal brain malignancies, characterized by aggressive invasion, therapeutic resistance and poor prognosis. Conventional treatment approaches are limited by systemic toxicity, poor blood–brain barrier (BBB) penetration and lack of tumor specificity. Nanoparticle-based therapeutics offer a transformative paradigm redefining drug delivery, diagnostics and multimodal strategies in GBM. In this review, we critically explore a diverse variety of advanced nanocarrier platforms designed for anti-proliferative, radiosensitizing and immunomodulatory interventions. These systems enhance BBB penetration, tumor localization and enable co-delivery of chemotherapeutics, gene therapies and imaging agents with high precision. Innovative approaches show efficacy against glioma stem cells, modulate the tumor microenvironment and address resistance mechanisms. Integration with radiotherapy and immunotherapy yields synergistic tumor suppression and immune activation, advancing personalized nanomedicine. Despite these advancements, translational hurdles remain nanogenotoxicity, long-term biosafety, immune responses and regulatory barriers. This review emphasizes such challenges while identifying opportunities for strategic innovation in GBM nanotherapy. By uniquely bridging preclinical advances with emerging clinical perspectives, we highlight its distinct contribution within the field. By bridging nanotechnology, molecular oncology and bioengineering, we highlight how rational nanoparticle design can shift GBM management toward targeted, multimodal precision therapy, offering renewed hope against one of oncology’s most intractable diseases.
Keywords: Glioblastoma, Nanoparticles, Blood-Brain Barrier, Nanotechnology, Nanomedicine, Nanotherapeutics.
Abstract Malignant tumors remain one of the most serious challenges to global health. Although chemotherapy and targeted therapy are available treatment options, their effectiveness is often limited by the complexity of the tumor microenvironment (TME). In recent years, immunotherapy has demonstrated significant potential in harnessing the immune system to combat cancer. Polymeric nanoparticles (PNPs) have emerged as versatile platforms for cancer immunotherapy, offering favorable biocompatibility, tunable size, and surface functionalization for targeted delivery. In this review, we critically evaluate PNP design strategies, emphasizing stimuli-responsive release mechanisms that enable spatiotemporally controlled drug delivery within the TME, thereby enhancing efficacy and minimizing systemic toxicity. We further highlight PNP-enabled synergistic therapies, including photodynamic, chemodynamic, and sonodynamic therapies, that induce immunogenic cell death (ICD) and potentiate antitumor immunity, as well as PNP-based vaccines (RNA, peptide, and in situ) that activate dendritic cells (DCs) and cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs). Nevertheless, the clinical translation of PNP-based therapies is constrained by multiple factors, including manufacturing scalability, emulsifier-related toxicity, rapid RES clearance, inherent immunogenicity, and the heterogeneity of the TME. By bridging material engineering with immunological barriers and translational challenges, this review provides a critical framework for designing next-generation PNP immunotherapies toward personalized cancer treatment.
Dongqi Li, Jia Hu, Yingshu Cui et al.· International Journal of Nan...· 0 citations
Brain metastasis originating from breast cancer is an uncommon but clinically significant complication that poses substantial therapeutic challenges and is associated with poor patient prognosis. Traditional treatment modalities-including surgical resection, whole-brain radiation therapy, stereotactic radiosurgery, and systemic chemotherapy-often fail to achieve satisfactory long-term control due to the protective nature of the blood-brain barrier (BBB), tumor heterogeneity, and the aggressive biology of metastatic lesions. This comprehensive review delves into recent advances in modern therapeutic approaches that aim to enhance the efficacy of conventional treatments for rare brain metastases from breast cancer (BC). We systematically evaluate emerging strategies such as advanced drug delivery technologies, including nanoparticles (NPs), polymeric NPs, and liposomal formulations, which are designed to overcome pharmacokinetic limitations and improve the penetration and retention of chemotherapeutic agents within the central nervous system (CNS). The review also explores the integration of immunotherapies, particularly immune checkpoint inhibitors and adoptive cell therapies-with traditional modalities to potentiate antitumor immune responses in the brain microenvironment. Moreover, we discuss the development and application of novel radiosensitizers and combination regimens aimed at overcoming the inherent and acquired radioresistance of metastatic tumors. The synthesis of current preclinical models and clinical trial data provides critical insights into the potential of these combined approaches to enhance patient survival and quality of life. Finally, we identify key challenges, including the need for personalized treatment protocols and the management of therapy-related toxicities, and propose future directions for research.
Ghazala Muteeb, Aya Y El-Sayed, Mohamed S. AboHoussien et al.· SLAS discovery : advancing l...· 0 citations
Cancer immunotherapy has substantially advanced cancer treatment, achieving durable responses in select malignancies. However, its widespread application is limited by significant challenges: low efficacy in many solid tumors, severe side effects, and immune evasion facilitated by the tumor microenvironment (TME). Nanotechnology offers a promising approach to address these obstacles. By employing nanoparticles (NPs), we can precisely deliver therapeutics to tumor sites, ensure controlled release to minimize side effects, and amplify the immune response, thereby substantially boosting the effectiveness of immunotherapy. This review comprehensively highlights the latest advancements in using nanotechnology to enhance cancer immunotherapy. This paper details various applications of nanotech in this field. It discusses smart nanoparticles that respond to TME signals to release drugs (e.g., checkpoint inhibitors) directly at the tumor, reducing systemic side effects and activating T-cells. We also explore how nanovaccines, which co-deliver tumor markers and immune boosters, can induce antigen-specific immune responses. Furthermore, mRNA-loaded nanoparticles can directly modify CAR T-cells inside the body, simplifying treatment and increasing efficacy. Strategies like using PLGA NPs to deliver immune enhancers such as IL-2 are also presented, which activate immune cells while minimizing systemic issues. The review also explains how nanoparticles can re-engineer the immunosuppressive TME to create an environment more conducive to immune action. We also emphasize that nanotechnology-enhanced adoptive therapies, particularly cytokine-induced killer (CIK) cell immunotherapy, hold great potential to improve tumor targeting, treatment persistence durability, and overall anticancer efficacy. Collectively, we highlight synergistic effects achieved by combining nanoparticles with other treatments like chemotherapy, radiation, photothermal/photodynamic therapy, and more, which can turn hard-to-treat tumors into susceptible targets. The integration of nanotechnology and immunotherapy holds the potential to meaningfully advance future cancer therapy.
U. Cho, Jingjing Pu, Amit Sharma et al.· Molecular Cancer· 0 citations
Traditional treatments for lung cancer include surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, and targeted therapies (such as Erlotinib, Gefitinib, and Crizotinib), as well as immunotherapy (such as Nivolumab and Pembrolizumab). However, these approaches face challenges such as drug resistance, limited efficacy, and significant side effects, making it difficult to improve long-term prognosis. Therefore, tumor vaccines, as a novel immunotherapy strategy, have become a focus of research, aiming to precisely activate anti-tumor immune responses and address the shortcomings of existing treatments. In recent years, mRNA vaccine technology has developed rapidly, especially following the successful application of COVID-19 vaccines, demonstrating its immense potential for rapid development and large-scale production. mRNA cancer vaccines induce durable anti-tumor immune responses and reshape the tumor microenvironment by delivering mRNA encoding tumor-specific antigens, enabling targeted therapy. Through the dual synergistic pathways of direct local modulation by the vector/encoded factors and secondary effects mediated by antigen-specific T-cell activation, the tumor microenvironment is reshaped, thereby inducing durable antitumor immune responses. Against this background, this review systematically evaluates the current status and prospects of mRNA vaccines in lung cancer treatment, with a focus on their progress in precisely modulating the tumor microenvironment, identifying novel tumor antigens, discovering immune biomarkers, and related clinical studies. Additionally, the review discusses the process optimization of lipid nanoparticle (LNP) delivery systems, aiming to provide theoretical support and practical guidance for the development of safe and effective therapeutic vaccine platforms for lung cancer.
Hao Wu, Ruiqi Weng, Siyi Gu et al.· Frontiers in Immunology· 0 citations
Brain cancer remains a major global health challenge due to its high morbidity and mortality. Current standard therapies are often limited by incomplete tumor resection, systemic toxicity, and the inability to effectively penetrate the blood-brain barrier (BBB), which restricts drug delivery to the tumor site. These challenges underscore the urgent need for innovative therapeutic strategies that can overcome these barriers and improve treatment outcomes. Biological materials encompass a diverse range of molecules, from small peptides to monoclonal antibodies, either derived from living organisms or synthetically synthesized. Unlike traditional therapies, biologics provide a more targeted approach, including specific tumor targeting, immune system modulation, and regenerating damaged cells. Although biologics offer significant promise for brain cancer treatment, major challenges associated with blood-brain and tumour barriers continue to limit their translation, and comprehensive reviews bridging therapeutic advances with delivery technologies remain scarce. While individual biologic classes have been extensively studied, a unified assessment of these modalities and their delivery optimization is still needed. This review addresses the current gap by critically examining recent advances in biologic therapies and evaluating emerging invasive and non-invasive delivery strategies to enhance their therapeutic efficacy in brain cancer.
Yu-Ran Feng, Yuxue Cao, Maria Kavallaris et al.· Advances in Materials· 0 citations