巨噬细胞由于其识别和清除病原体的能力以及展示抗原的能力，在免疫应答中发挥着关键作用，而且它们还是肿瘤微环境中最丰富的免疫细胞群体之一。近年来，由于巨噬细胞具有生物相容性、可降解性、缺乏免疫原性、在循环中的半衰期较长、能够穿过生物障碍并在炎症部位如肿瘤积聚，巨噬细胞已成为潜在的药物和纳米颗粒向肿瘤微环境输送的细胞载体之一。对于这种被称为“特洛伊木马”的治疗策略的有效性，重要的是被巨噬细胞吞噬的纳米颗粒不会影响它们的正常功能。在我们的综述中，我们讨论了纳米颗粒的大小、形状、化学和机械性质如何影响其被巨噬细胞摄入。此外，我们还描述了利用巨噬细胞、它们的细胞膜和巨噬细胞源性外泌体作为抗癌治疗药物载体的有希望的研究。作为该治疗策略更广泛应用的前景，我们推测其在硼中子俘获疗法中用于硼向肿瘤环境输送的未来应用。© 2023 Wróblewska等。

Macrophages play a critical role in the immune response due to their ability to recognize and remove pathogens, as well as present antigens, which are involved in inflammation, but they are also one of the most abundant immune cell populations present in the tumor microenvironment. In recent years, macrophages have become promising cellular carriers for drug and nanoparticle delivery to the tumor microenvironment, mainly due to their natural properties such as biocompatibility, degradability, lack of immunogenicity, long half-life in circulation, crossing biological barriers, and the possibility of migration and accumulation at a site of inflammation such as a tumor. For the effectiveness of this therapeutic strategy, known as "Trojan horse", it is important that the nanoparticles engulfed by macrophages do not affect their proper functioning. In our review, we discussed how the size, shape, chemical and mechanical properties of nanoparticles influence their internalization by macrophages. In addition, we described the promising research utilizing macrophages, their cell membranes and macrophage-derived exosomes as drug carriers in anticancer therapy. As a prospect of the wider use of this therapeutic strategy, we postulate its future application in boron delivery to the tumor environment in boron neutron capture therapy.© 2023 Wróblewska et al.