The cancer cell membrane contains an arsenal of highly specific homotypic moieties that can be used to recognize its own kind. These cell membranes are often used to coat spherical nanoparticles to enhance nanomedicines’ targeting specificities and uptakes. A sphere, however, has only a point contact with a surface at any given time. It is shown here that, by retaining a flatter morphology of the cracked cell membrane through stiffening with in situ synthesized gold nanomaterials, an increased area of interaction could be maintained and hence improve upon the in vitro and in vivo homotypic targeting capabilities between cancer cell types. This enhancement is especially important in vivo as any nanomedicine with targeting moieties probably has a single pass at interacting with the target cell before subsequent system clearance. Possible future clinical applications may involve the usage of a patient’s autologous tumor biopsy tissues, which are very limited in supply, and therefore ensuring that we capitalize on the entire collective surface area of the cancer cell membrane available becomes an important consideration in the design and delivery our cell membrane-derived nanomedicines.

Over the last decade, researchers have focused on developing an ideal cancer nanomedicine with robust biointerfacing, precise tumor targeting, and effective tumor killing ability. While synthetic approaches have been widely investigated, cell membrane nanotechnology has been attracting growing interest in the nanomedicine field since it enables researchers to exploit the various functions of cells. Prior to development of cell membrane nanotechnology, synthetic cell membrane‐like structures had been employed in nanomedicine. In this review, first a brief comparison between cell membrane and cell membrane‐like structures is provided and the generalized structure and functions of cell membrane are summarized. Cell membrane extraction methods and cell membrane‐based nanoparticle synthesis methods are explained. In addition, applications of these nanotechnologies in many biomedical applications are reviewed. Finally, a perspective of the future prospects and limitations of cell membrane nanotechnology is given. As with many new technologies, there are issues, which when overcome, can allow the potential of cell membrane nanotechnology for future personalized cancer nanomedicine.