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With the rapid growth of advanced nanoengineering strategies, there are great implications for therapeutic immunostimulators formulated in nanomaterials to combat cancer. It is crucial to direct immunostimulators to the right tissue and specific immune cells at the right time, thereby orchestrating the desired, potent, and durable immune response against cancer. The flexibility of nanoformulations in size, topology, softness, and multifunctionality allows precise regulation of nano‐immunological activities for enhanced therapeutic effect. To grasp the modulation of immune response, research efforts are needed to understand the interactions of immune cells at lymph organs and tumor tissues, where the nanoformulations guide the immunostimulators to function on tissue specific subsets of immune cells. In this review, recent advanced nanoformulations targeting specific subset of immune cells, such as dendritic cells (DCs), T cells, monocytes, macrophages, and natural killer (NK) cells are summarized and discussed, and clinical development of nano‐paradigms for targeted cancer immunotherapy is highlighted. Here the focus is on the targeting nanoformulations that can passively or actively target certain immune cells by overcoming the physiobiological barriers, instead of directly injecting into tissues. The opportunities and remaining obstacles for the clinical translation of immune cell targeting nanoformulations in cancer therapy are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Immune responses stimulated by photodynamic therapy (PDT) and photothermal therapy (PTT) are a promising strategy for the treatment of advanced cancer. However, the antitumor efficacy by PDT or PTT alone is less potent and unsustainable against cancer metastasis and relapse. In this study, Gd3+ and chlorin e6 loaded single‐walled carbon nanohorns (Gd‐Ce6@SWNHs) are developed, and it is demonstrated that they are a strong immune adjuvant, and have high tumor targeting and penetration efficiency. Then, three in vivo mouse cancer models are established, and it is found that sequential PDT and PTT using Gd‐Ce6@SWNHs synergistically promotes systemic antitumor immune responses, where PTT stimulates dendritic cells (DCs) to secrete IL‐6 and TNF‐α, while PDT triggers upregulation of IFN‐γ and CD80. Moreover, migration of Gd‐Ce6@SWNHs from the targeted tumors to tumor‐draining lymph nodes sustainably activates the DCs to generate a durable immune response, which eventually eliminates the distant metastases without using additional therapeutics. Gd‐Ce6@SWNHs intervened phototherapies also generate durable and long‐term memory immune responses to tolerate and prevent cancer rechallenge. Therefore, this study demonstrates that sequential PDT and PTT using Gd‐Ce6@SWNHs under moderate conditions elicits cooperative and long‐lasting antitumor immune responses, which are promising for the treatment of patients with advanced metastatic cancers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]