Experimental biology and medicine (Maywood, N.J.), cilt.246, ss.354-367, 2021 (SCI-Expanded)
Bladder cancer
is a disease that negatively affects patients’ quality of life, but treatment options
have remained unchanged for a long time. Although promising results have been achieved
with current bladder cancer treatments, cancer recurrence, progression, and therapy
resistance are the most severe problems preventing the efficiency of bladder cancer
treatments. Autophagy refers to an evolutionarily conserved catabolic process
in which proteins, damaged organelles, and cytoplasmic components are degraded
by lysosomal enzymes. Autophagy regulates the therapeutic response to the
chemotherapy drugs, thus determining the effect of therapy on cancer cells.
Autophagy is a stress-induced cell survival mechanism and its excessive
stimulation can cause resistance of tumor cells to therapeutic agents.
Depending on the conditions, an increase in autophagy may cause treatment
resistance or autophagic cell death, and it is related to important anti-cancer
mechanisms, such as apoptosis. Therefore, understanding the roles of autophagy
under different conditions is important for designing effective anti-cancer
agents. The dual role of autophagy in cancer has attracted considerable
attention in respect of bladder cancer treatment. In this review, we summarize
the basic characteristics of autophagy, including its mechanisms, regulation,
and functions, and we present examples from current studies concerning the dual
role of autophagy in bladder cancer progression and therapy.