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© 2018 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.

Abstract

Autophagy is an intracellular degradative process that occurs under several stressful conditions, including organelle damage, the presence of abnormal proteins, and nutrient deprivation. The mechanism of autophagy initiates the formation of autophagosomes that capture degraded components and then fuse with lysosomes to recycle these components. The modulation of autophagy plays dual roles in tumor suppression and promotion in many cancers. In addition, autophagy regulates the properties of cancer stem-cells by contributing to the maintenance of stemness, the induction of recurrence, and the development of resistance to anticancer reagents. Although some autophagy modulators, such as rapamycin and chloroquine, are used to regulate autophagy in anticancer therapy, since this process also plays roles in both tumor suppression and promotion, the precise mechanism of autophagy in cancer requires further study. In this review, we will summarize the mechanism of autophagy under stressful conditions and its roles in tumor suppression and promotion in cancer and in cancer stem-cells. Furthermore, we discuss how autophagy is a promising potential therapeutic target in cancer treatment.

Details

Title
The Roles of Autophagy in Cancer
Author
Yun, Chul Won 1 ; Lee, Sang Hun 2   VIAFID ORCID Logo 

 Medical Science Research Institute, Soonchunhyang University Seoul Hospital, Seoul 04401, Korea 
 Medical Science Research Institute, Soonchunhyang University Seoul Hospital, Seoul 04401, Korea; Department of Biochemistry, Soonchunhyang University College of Medicine, Cheonan 31538, Korea 
First page
3466
Publication year
2018
Publication date
2018
Publisher
MDPI AG
ISSN
16616596
e-ISSN
14220067
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
2582843673
Copyright
© 2018 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.