Reprogramming adoptive cell therapy for osteosarcoma: engineering, vaccination, and tumor microenvironment remodeling

Osteosarcoma remains a major treatment challenge, especially for patients with recurrent, refractory or metastatic diseases. Adoptive cell therapy (ACT), including CAR-T cells, TCR engineered T cells, CAR-NK cells and macrophage based cell therapy, provides a promising strategy for redirecting immune effector cells to fight osteosarcoma. However, clinical translation has been limited by antigen heterogeneity, on-target/off-tumor toxicity, insufficient tumor trafficking, poor persistence, functional exhaustion, and the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment. This mini review discusses emerging innovations designed to overcome these safety and efficacy barriers. First, engineering strategies such as multi-antigen recognition, logic-gated CAR systems, suicide switches, transient CAR expression, armored cytokine circuits, checkpoint-resistant designs, and chemokine receptor modification may improve precision, controllability, and durability. Second, vaccination approaches may serve as programmable amplifiers of ACT by promoting in vivo expansion, immune memory, antigen spreading, and local inflammatory priming. Third, tumor microenvironment remodeling through stromal modulation, vascular normalization, myeloid reprogramming, checkpoint blockade, and metabolic intervention may convert osteosarcoma into a more permissive niche for cellular therapy. Collectively, next-generation ACT for osteosarcoma will likely require modular, biomarker-guided combinations that integrate cellular engineering, vaccine-based boosting, and microenvironmental remodeling to achieve safer and more durable antitumor responses.