Nanomedicine Meets Immunotherapy: Transforming Chimeric Antigen Receptor T Cell Treatment for Solid Tumors

The emergence of effective immunotherapies has drastically revolutionized clinical management of many cancer types. Among them, chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cell therapy (CTT), as a groundbreaking approach, has been considered as a “living drug,” displaying unprecedented clinical outcomes with hematological malignancies, including B cell leukemia and lymphomas, and multiple myeloma. Despite the high remission rates and improved survival achieved with hematological cancers, the effectiveness of CTT in solid tumors remains largely unsatisfactory. The efficacy of CTT in solid tumors is significantly challenged by multiple factors, including tumor-antigen heterogeneity, limited T cell trafficking and infiltration, a highly immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment, and the risk of severe adverse effects. Accumulating evidence highlights the potential of nanotechnology to address these obstacles, paving the way for more effective CTT against solid tumors. Thus, this review explores to highlight the evolution and challenges of CTT in solid tumors, while summarizing the up-to-date advances of nanotechnology-enabled CTT with the intention towards the formulation of a more cohesive, personalized, and effective cancer therapy in the future.