Hitchhiking is a phenomenon of cruising on surfaces. Inspired by this process, biomimetic delivery systems leveraging the intrinsic ability of circulatory cells to target tumors exhibit considerable potential in cancer theranostics. Besides human circulatory cell‐mediated hitchhiking, bacteria‐driven hitchhiking strategies also manifest promise in cancer therapy. Such tactics are primarily built using nonpathogenic invasive bacteria with tumor homing capabilities. The chemotherapeutic cargos are hitchhiked onto the circulatory cells or bacterial spores for tumor‐targeted delivery. By integrating the benefits of such cells and therapeutic cargo, numerous efficient delivery systems that implement the notion of hitchhiking for cancer therapy are generated. Following an overview of several hitchhiking concepts, this article reviews various cellular and bacterial hitchhiking approaches for cancer treatment. Additionally, the challenges and prospects in the field of cancer theranostics related to hitchhiking are also discussed.
One of the most effective cancer therapies, cancer immunotherapy has produced outstanding outcomes in the field of cancer treatment. However, the cost is excessive, which limits its applicability. A smart way to address this issue would be to apply the knowledge gained through immunotherapy to develop strategies for the immunoprevention of cancer. The use of cancer vaccines is one of the most popular methods of immunoprevention. This paper reviews the technologies and processes that support the advantages of cancer immunoprevention over traditional cancer immunotherapies. Nanoparticle drug delivery systems and nanoparticle-based nano-vaccines have been employed in the past for cancer immunotherapy. This paper outlines numerous immunoprevention strategies and how nanotechnology can be applied in immunoprevention. To comprehend the non-clinical and clinical evaluation of these cancer vaccines through clinical studies is essential for acceptance of the vaccines.
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