Combination of an Autophagy Inducer and an Autophagy Inhibitor: A Smarter Strategy Emerging in Cancer Therapy.

Autophagy is considered a cytoprotective function in cancer therapy under certain conditions and is a drug resistance mechanism that represents a clinical obstacle to successful cancer treatment and leads to poor prognosis in cancer patients. Because certain clinical drugs and agents in development have cytoprotective autophagy effects, targeting autophagic pathways has emerged as a potential smarter strategy for cancer therapy. Multiple preclinical and clinical studies have demonstrated that autophagy inhibition augments the efficacy of anticancer agents in various cancers.