REVIEW article
Front. Immunol.
Sec. Cancer Immunity and Immunotherapy
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2025.1653829
This article is part of the Research TopicNanomaterials Mediated Immunomodulation in Cancer: Current Perspective from Bench to ClinicView all 5 articles
Nano-enabled strategies for targeted immunotherapy in gastrointestinal cancers
Provisionally accepted
- Kunming Municipal Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Kunming, China
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Gastrointestinal (GI) cancers remain a leading cause of global cancer morbidity and mortality, demanding novel therapeutic strategies that overcome existing limitations. Nanomedicine has recently emerged as a transformative approach, offering the potential to significantly enhance immunotherapy outcomes through precision targeting and modulation of tumour immune microenvironments. This review discusses the principal categories of precision-engineered nanoparticles-including lipid-based carriers, polymeric systems, protein-derived formulations, and metallic-hybrid composites-emphasising their capacity for targeted immune modulation and improved pharmacokinetic profiles. These nanoparticle platforms strategically intervene across multiple stages of the cancer-immunity cycle, facilitating antigen presentation, T-cell activation, and cytotoxic lymphocyte infiltration, and augmenting immune checkpoint blockade efficacy. Clinically approved nanoformulations such as Abraxane, Doxil, Onivyde, and emerging mRNA-based nanovaccines highlight promising translational outcomes in GI malignancies, demonstrating improved therapeutic indices and reduced systemic toxicity. Nonetheless, clinical implementation remains challenged by nanoparticle complexity, heterogeneous tumour biology, clearance mechanisms, and toxicity concerns. Future success will depend on integrated strategies combining advanced nanoparticle engineering, precise administration routes, rigorous translational validation, and rational therapeutic combinations to realise the full potential of nanomedicine-based immunotherapies in gastrointestinal oncology.
Keywords: Gastrointestinal cancers, Nanomedicine, tumour microenvironment, precision oncology, Immunotherapy
Received: 25 Jun 2025; Accepted: 31 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 CHEN, Li, Hua, Deng and Zhang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Zhiyun Zhang, Kunming Municipal Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Kunming, China
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