Cancer cells use autophagy to feed their hunger to extend cell life

Maintains the function of cell organelles, prevents the accumulation of toxic wastes in the cell, and maintains the metabolic state; autophagy can also regulate tumor survival environment by promoting angiogenesis, supplying nutrients and regulating inflammation.

Tumor cells use the autophagy mechanism to provide a way for them to overcome nutritional constraints and promote tumor growth.

Therefore, in most cases, autophagy promotes the occurrence, proliferation and malignancy of tumor cells. The mechanism includes that autophagy inhibits the induction of p53 tumor suppressor protein and maintains mitochondrial metabolism. Generally speaking, inhibiting the autophagy of tumor cells is a favorable strategy for anti-cancer therapy.

But a further problem and concern is that autophagy may inhibit oxidative stress, inflammation, p62 accumulation and genome instability, and may also increase gene mutations in cancer cells, making cancer worse. In addition, because autophagy is an important function for normal tissues, the main limitation is how to selectively inhibit the autophagy of tumor cells and avoid harm to normal tissues. Regarding the mechanism of autophagy, it is still unclear which effective and beneficial calibration components and mechanisms can be selected to treat tumor cells or which subgroups of cancer patients are effective.