Autophagy: friend or foe in breast cancer development, progression and treatment

BERARDI; DÍAZ BESSONE; CAMPODÓNICO; URTREGER ; TODARO

International Journal of Breast Cancer

SAGE-Hindawi Access to Research

Lugar: Londres; Año: 2011 p. 1 - 7

2090-3189

Autophagy is a catabolic process responsible for degradation and recycling of long-lived proteins and organelles by lysosomes. This degradative pathway, sustains cell survival during nutrient deprivation, but is also a means of achieving cell death. On the one hand, autophagy can serve as a tumor suppressor, as the reduction in autophagic capacity causes malignant transformation and spontaneous tumors. But on the other hand, this process also functions as a protective cell survival mechanism against environmental stress causing resistance to antineoplastic therapies. Although autophagy inhibition, combined with anticancer agents, could be therapeutically beneficial in some circumstances, autophagy induction by itself could lead to cell death in some apoptosis-resistant cancers, indicating that autophagy induction alone may also be used as a therapy. This review summarizes the most important findings described in the literature about autophagy and also discusses the importance of this process in clinical settings.