Nanomedicine approaches for treatment of hematologic and oncologic malignancies

Abstract

Cancer is a leading cause of death worldwide. Nowadays, the therapies are inadequate and spur demand for improved technologies. Rapid growth in nanotechnology and novel nanomedicine products represents an opportunity to achieve sophisticated targeting strategies and multi-functionality. Nanomedicine is increasingly used to develop new cancer diagnosis and treatment methods since this technology can modulate the biodistribution and the target site accumulation of chemotherapeutic drugs, thereby reducing their toxicity. Cancer nanotechnology and cancer immunotherapy are two parallel themes that have emerged over the last few decades while searching for a cure for cancer. Immunotherapy is revolutionizing cancer treatment, as it can achieve unprecedented responses in advanced-stage patients, including complete cures and long-term survival. A deeper understanding of the human immune system allows the establishment of combination regimens in which immunotherapy is combined with other treatment modalities (as in the case of the nanodrug Ferumoxytol). Furthermore, the combination of gene therapy approaches with nanotechnology that aims to silence or express cancer-relevant genes via one-time treatment is gradually progressing from bench to bedside. The most common example includes lipid-based nanoparticles that target VEGF-Α and KRAS pathways. This review focuses on nanoparticle-based platforms utilized in recent advances aiming to increase the efficacy of currently available cancer therapies. The insights provided and the evidence obtained in this paper indicate a bright future ahead for immuno-oncology applications of engineering nanomedicines.

Keywords: Nanomedicine; Cancer; Immunotherapy; Gene; Cell therapy

Core Tip: Despite many years of fundamental and clinical examination and preliminaries of promising new treatments, cancer stays a significant reason for dreariness and mortality. Ongoing investigations propose that nanomedicine gives benefits over conventional treatments for cancer therapy. Immunotherapeutic strategies, such as cancer vaccines, immunomodulatory agents, immune checkpoint inhibitors, natural killer cells, peptides, nucleic acids, and chimeric antigen receptor T-cells, have augmented the development of this treatment either by stimulating cells or blocking the so-called immune checkpoint pathways. The efficacy of nanomedicine treatments and the examination of the advancement in the synergistic plan of immune-targeting combination therapies reviewed in this manuscript have been validated in clinical trials. The field of nanomedicine, therefore, generates new approaches regarding oncologic malignancies.