Autophagy as a novel strategy for treatment of gastric cancer: A hypothesis

Gastric cancer is the second most frequent cause of cancer-related death in the world and also causes much morbidity. The acquired resistance of cancer cells to drug reagents is becoming a major obstacle for successful cancer therapy. Recently, many studies have revealed that macroautophagy (here referred to as autophagy) may be a prosurvival factor and protect the cancer cell from the development of drug-induced death. Thus, we propose that autophagy may play an important role in the resistance of gastric cancer to therapy. Although the exact role of autophagy in tumor cells is still unclear and further studies are needed to prove the role of autophagy in gastric cancer, recent research findings suggest a new direction in investigating the mechanism underlying resistance of gastric cancer to therapy.