Chemotherapy drugs are cytotoxic to tumor cells, but their lack of specificity leads to a range of side effects. The off-target effects of such drugs can be improved through the use of nanoparticles (NPs). Administered NPs show enhanced accumulation in tumor tissue near the blood vessels, enhancing both anticancer drug permeability and tumor retention. Several nanocarriers are now approved for clinical use in a range of cancer therapies, and many novel formulations are in the later stages of clinical trials. Here, we describe the advances in this area through the review of novel NP drug formulations developed over the last year. We focus specifically on lung, colon, cervical, and breast cancers and discuss the future of NPs as potential treatment options in these areas.

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most common cancer and the second leading cause of cancer deaths worldwide. Besides common therapeutic approaches, such as surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy, novel therapeutic approaches, including immunotherapy, have been an advent in CRC treatment. The immunotherapy approaches try to elicit patients` immune responses against tumor cells to eradicate the tumor. Monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) and chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells are two branches of cancer immunotherapy. MAbs demonstrate the great ability to completely recognize cancer cell-surface receptors and blockade proliferative or inhibitory pathways. On the other hand, T cell activation by genetically engineered CAR receptor via the TCR/CD3 and costimulatory domains can induce potent immune responses against specific tumor-associated antigens (TAAs). Both of these approaches have beneficial anti-tumor effects on CRC. Herein, we review the different mAbs against various pathways and their applications in clinical trials, the different types of CAR-T cells, various specific CAR-T cells against TAAs, and their clinical use in CRC treatment.

Immunotherapy has revolutionized cancer treatment, however, not all tumor types and patients are completely responsive to this approach. Establishing predictive pre‐clinical models would allow for more accurate and practical immunotherapeutic drug development. Mouse models are extensively used as in vivo system for biomedical research. However, due to the significant differences between rodents and human, it is impossible to translate most of the findings from mouse models to human. Pharmacological development and advancing personalized medicine using patient‐derived xenografts relies on producing mouse models in which murine cells and genes are substituted with their human equivalent. Humanized mice (HM) provide a suitable platform to evaluate xenograft growth in the context of a human immune system. In this review, we discussed recent advances in the generation and application of HM models. We also reviewed new insights into the basic mechanisms, pre‐clinical evaluation of onco‐immunotherapies, current limitations in the application of these models as well as available improvement strategies. Finally, we pointed out some issues for future studies.

Oncolytic virotherapy (OVT) is a promising approach in cancer immunotherapy. Oncolytic viruses (OVs) could be applied in cancer immunotherapy without in-depth knowledge of tumor antigens. The capability of genetic modification makes OVs exciting therapeutic tools with a high potential for manipulation. Improving efficacy, employing immunostimulatory elements, changing the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment (TME) to inflammatory TME, optimizing their delivery system, and increasing the safety are the main areas of OVs manipulations. Recently, the reciprocal interaction of OVs and TME has become a hot topic for investigators to enhance the efficacy of OVT with less off-target adverse events. Current investigations suggest that the main application of OVT is to provoke the antitumor immune response in the TME, which synergize the effects of other immunotherapies such as immune-checkpoint blockers and adoptive cell therapy. In this review, we focused on the effects of OVs on the TME and antitumor immune responses. Furthermore, OVT challenges, including its moderate efficiency, safety concerns, and delivery strategies, along with recent achievements to overcome challenges, are thoroughly discussed.