Autophagy in pancreatic cancer

Macroautophagy(hereafter referred to as autophagy)is a conserved eukaryotic process,in which dysfunctional proteins,organelles,and other macromolecules are wrapped in intracellular vesicles called autophagosomes and delivered to lysosomes for degradation(Mizushima et al.,2008;Mizushima and Komatsu,2011).Autophagy restores cellular energy and recycles cytoplasmic precursors,sustaining cell homeostasis and cell survival(Mizushima et al.,2008;Mizushima and Komatsu,2011).Elevated autophagy can be detected in both cancer cells and surrounding stromal cells in pancreatic cancer(PC),affecting tumor initiation and progression as well(Yang et al.,2011;Endo et al.,2017).The role of autophagy in PC is highly context-dependent.Here,we illustrate the multifactorial role of autophagy in PC,and the significance of autophagy will be emphasized not only in cancer cells but also in the tumor microenvironment.