Materials-Based Cancer Immunotherapies

Despite an abundance of promising preclinical data supporting diverse immunotherapeutic approaches to cancer treatment, thus far only immune checkpoint inhibitors have entered routine clinical practice. Biomaterial-based approaches provide numerous advantages with the potential to overcome many of the challenges limiting efficacy and the wider adoption of immunotherapy. Here, we describe several biomaterials applications in immunotherapy with a particular focus on how rationally designed nanoparticle and macroscale scaffold strategies can be used to increase the efficacy of established immunotherapy approaches while reducing potential systemic toxicities. These biomaterial-based immunotherapeutic strategies in cancer stand to make serious impacts not only in the field of immunotherapy, but within cancer oncology as a whole.