Autophagy in cancer.

Autophagy in cancer. F1000Prime Rep. 2015;7:18 Authors: Zhi X, Zhong Q Abstract Autophagy is a catabolic degradation process in which cellular proteins and organelles are engulfed by double-membrane autophagosomes and degraded in lysosomes. Autophagy has emerged as a critical pathway in tumor development and cancer therapy, although its precise function remains a conundrum. The current consensus is that autophagy has a dual role in cancer. On the one hand, autophagy functions as a tumor suppressor mechanism by preventing the accumulation of damaged organelles and aggregated proteins. On the other hand, autophagy is a key cell survival mechanism for established tumors; therefore autophagy inhibition suppresses tumor progression. Here, we summarize recent progress on the role of autophagy in tumorigenesis and cancer therapy. PMID: 25750736 [PubMed]
Source: F1000 Medicine Reports - Category: Biomedical Science Tags: F1000Prime Rep Source Type: research