Targeting the autophagy pathway for cancer chemoprevention.

Autophagy is crucial for maintaining cellular homeostasis, coping with metabolic stress, and limiting oxidative damage. Several autophagy-deficient or knockout models show increased tumor incidence, implicating autophagy as a tumor suppressor. Autophagy is involved in multiple processes that may curb transformation, including the control of oncogene-induced senescence (OIS), which can limit progression to full malignancy, and efficient antigen presentation, which is crucial for immune cell recognition and elimination of nascent cancer cells. Activation of the autophagy pathway may therefore hold promise as a chemoprevention strategy. Caloric restriction, bioactive dietary compounds, or specific pharmacological activators of the autophagy pathway are all possible avenues to explore in harnessing the autophagy pathway in cancer prevention. Copyright 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.