ABSTRACT
Autophagy is deregulated in many cancers and represents an attractive target for therapeutic intervention. However, the precise contributions of autophagy to metastatic progression, the principle cause of cancer-related mortality, is only now being uncovered. While autophagy promotes primary tumor growth, metabolic adaptation and resistance to therapy, recent studies have unexpectedly revealed that autophagy suppresses the proliferative outgrowth of disseminated tumor cells into overt and lethal macrometastases. These studies suggest autophagy plays unexpected and complex roles in the initiation and progression of metastases, which will undoubtedly impact therapeutic approaches for cancer treatment. Here, we discuss the intricacies of autophagy in metastatic progression, highlighting and integrating the pleiotropic roles of autophagy on diverse cell biological processes involved in metastasis.
Footnotes
Competing interests
J.D. is a Scientific Advisory Board Member for Vescor Therapeutics, LLC. T.M. is employed by Casma Therapeutics.
Funding
Support for research on autophagy and metastasis to J.D. includes grants from the National Cancer Institute (CA201849, CA126792, CA213775), the Department of Defense BCRP (W81XWH-11-1-0130), Samuel Waxman Cancer Research Foundation, and Mark Foundation for Cancer Research (Endeavor Award). B.T. is supported by a Pancreas Center Pilot Project Grant Award and a Hellman Family Award for Early Career Faculty from the University of California San Francisco (UCSF). T.M. received fellowship support from the National Cancer Institute (F31CA217015). Deposited in PMC for release after 12 months.
- © 2021. Published by The Company of Biologists Ltd
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