This book is intended to serve as an authoritative reference source for a broad audience involved in the research, teaching, learning, and practice of nanotechnology in immunotherapy. The combination of nanotechnology and immunotherapy is recognized as a promising treatment modality. In particular, the use of nanoparticles in immunotherapy has attracted increased attention for their unique efficacy and specificity in cancer treatment. This treatment approach is designed to stimulate the host immune system to detect and eradicate cancer cells, which have developed numerous mechanisms for evading immune recognition. Also, a wide variety of nanoparticles, such as polymeric and liposomal nanosystems, carbon nanotubes, and gold nanoparticles have provided important nanoplatforms for immunotherapeutic approaches. They can improve delivery and efficacy of immunotherapeutic agents such as vaccines or adjuvants because they have shown to exhibit preferential accumulation within tissues and cells of the immune system. A noteworthy development is nanoparticle-mediated thermal therapy which has demonstrated the potential for precise tumor cell ablation, radio-sensitization of hypoxic regions, enhancement of drug delivery, activation of thermosensitive agents, and enhancement of the immune system. Various nanosystems such as gold nanoparticles have been shown to stimulate the immune system, and thus could be used for adjuvant delivery. Nanoparticle sizes can be controlled so that they passively accumulate in tumors due to the enhanced permeability and retention (EPR) effect of tumor vasculature. The EPR effect is a result of the inherent leakiness of the tumor vasculature which is underdeveloped and allows nanoparticles to escape the circulation and accumulate passively in tumors. In addition, retention of nanoparticles in the tumor is enhanced by the lack of an efficient lymphatic system which would normally carry extravasated fluid back to the circulation. A special type of metallic nanoparticles, called plasmonic nanoparticles, has received great interest because they exhibit enhanced optical and electromagnetic properties and their capacity to efficiently convert photon energy into heat, make plasmonic nanoparticles the ideal photothermal transducer for selective photothermal therapy at the nanoscale level. Immunotherapies could thus synergistically benefit from targeted thermal nanotherapies, especially when hyperthermia around immune-checkpoint inhibitors in the tumor bed is combined with precise thermal ablation of cancer cells. Of great importance is the possibility that such an approach can induce long-term immunological memory that can provide protection against tumor recurrence long after treatment of the initial tumors. Nanoparticle-mediated immunotherapy could lead to an entirely new treatment paradigm that challenges traditional surgical resection approaches for many cancers and metastases.weiterlesen