Advancing Cancer Immunotherapy Through Advanced Drug Delivery Platforms: Microneedles, Oral Dissolving Films, and Exosomes

Recent advances in drug delivery have shifted the focus toward improving specificity, reducing toxicity, and developing novel platforms that are suitable for diverse routes of administration, including injections and oral therapies. Conventional cancer therapies often suffer from poor pharmacokinetics and off-target side effects, limiting their clinical utility and effectiveness in cancer treatment. Cancer immunotherapy, a treatment strategy that utilizes the body’s immune system to recognize and eliminate tumors, has emerged as an alternative to traditional therapies, but is limited by inefficient and non-specific delivery of immunomodulatory agents. Therefore, strategies such as microneedles (MNs), exosomes, and orally dissolving films (ODFs) have gained attention for their ability to target treatment specificity and improve patient response. Microneedles offer a minimally invasive, localized delivery strategy that bypasses the skin barrier and directly targets areas with high immune cell activity, making them promising for cancer immunotherapy and vaccine delivery. As naturally derived nanocarriers, exosomes provide a biocompatible, low-immune-response platform for delivering proteins, nucleic acids, and immunomodulatory agents, with the added advantage of naturally targeting specific cells. The flexibility of engineered exosome-based delivery systems is underscored by the wide range of cellular sources from which exosomes can be derived and their capacity for customization potential to improve targeting. Meanwhile, ODFs offer a patient-friendly alternative that enables rapid mucosal absorption and partial metabolic avoidance, supporting both small-molecule and immunotherapy-based applications. These strategies pave the way for a more personalized and efficient therapeutic delivery system. Each approach offers clear benefits, but challenges such as drug-loading capacity and regulatory hurdles persist. Continued development and integration of these technologies may significantly improve treatment outcomes, particularly in cancer, by enabling more targeted, controlled, and patient-accessible drug delivery.