Conventional cancer immunotherapy falls short at efficiently expanding T cells that specifically target cancerous cells in numbers sufficient to significantly reduce the tumor size or cancerous cell number in vivo. To overcome this limitation, provided herein are nanoparticles coated with MHC class I and/or class II molecules presenting tumor-specific antigens and co-stimulatory molecules and their use to expand antigen-specific anti-tumorigenic T cells to levels not achieved in current immunotherapeutic techniques. These antigen-specific anti-tumorigenic T cells include cytotoxic T cells, effector T cells, memory T cells, and helper T cells that are necessary to initiate and maintain a substantial immune response against metastatic or non-metastatic cancerous, pre-cancerous, or neoplastic cells in vivo. The present invention describes a systemic approach to targeting cancerous or pre-cancerous cells that are circulating cells, as in lymphomas, migratory metastatic cells, and solid tumors.
