Introduction: Monoclonal antibodies have revolutionized personalized medicine for cancer in recent decades. Despite their broad application in oncology, their large size and complexity may interfere with successful tumor targeting for certain applications of cancer diagnosis and therapy. Nanobodies have unique structural and pharmacological features compared to monoclonal antibodies and have successfully been used as complementary anti-cancer diagnostic and/or therapeutic tools.
Areas covered: Here, an overview is given of the nanobody-based diagnostics and therapeutics that have been or are currently being tested in oncological clinical trials. Furthermore, preclinical developments, which are likely to be translated into the clinic in the near future, are highlighted.
Expert opinion: Overall, the presented studies show the application potential of nanobodies in the field of oncology, making it likely that more nanobodies will be clinically approved in the upcoming future.
Keywords: Nanobodies; clinical translation; diagnostics; oncology; single domain antibodies; therapy.