title: Autophagy: cancer's friend or foe?
abstract: The functional relevance of autophagy in tumor formation and progression remains controversial. Autophagy can promote tumor suppression during cancer initiation and protect tumors during progression. Autophagy-associated cell death may act as a tumor suppressor, with several autophagy-related genes deleted in cancers. Loss of autophagy induces genomic instability and necrosis with inflammation in mouse tumor models. Conversely, autophagy enhances survival of tumor cells subjected to metabolic stress and may promote metastasis by enhancing tumor cell survival under environmental stress. Unraveling the complex molecular regulation and multiple diverse roles of autophagy is pivotal in guiding development of rational and novel cancer therapies.
authors.affiliation: Department of Life Science, National Institute of Technology Rourkela, Rourkela, Odisha, India. sujitb@nitrkl.ac.in
authors.forename: Sujit K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Bhutia
authors.forename: Subhadip
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mukhopadhyay
authors.forename: Niharika
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Sinha
authors.forename: Durgesh Nandini
authors.initials: DN
authors.lastname: Das
authors.forename: Prashanta Kumar
authors.initials: PK
authors.lastname: Panda
authors.forename: Samir K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Patra
authors.forename: Tapas K
authors.initials: TK
authors.lastname: Maiti
authors.forename: Mahitosh
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mandal
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Dent
authors.forename: Xiang-Yang
authors.initials: XY
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Swadesh K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Das
authors.forename: Devanand
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Sarkar
authors.forename: Paul B
authors.initials: PB
authors.lastname: Fisher
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001343:Autophagy; D002470:Cell Survival; D018450:Disease Progression; D016147:Genes, Tumor Suppressor; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000209:etiology / Q000473:pathology* / Q000517:prevention & control