Autophagy: Cancer, Other Pathologies, Inflammation, Immunity, Infection, and Aging is an eleven volume series that discusses in detail all aspects of autophagy machinery in the context of health, cancer, and other pathologies. Autophagy maintains homeostasis during starvation or stress conditions by balancing the synthesis of cellular components and their deregulation by autophagy. This series discusses the characterization of autophagosome-enriched vaccines and its efficacy in cancer immunotherapy. Autophagy serves to maintain healthy cells, tissues, and organs, but also promotes cancer survival and growth of established tumors. Impaired or deregulated autophagy can also contribute to disease pathogenesis. Understanding the importance and necessity of the role of autophagy in health and disease is vital for the studies of cancer, aging, neurodegeneration, immunology, and infectious diseases. Comprehensive and forward-thinking, these books offer a valuable guide to cellular processes while also inciting researchers to explore their potentially important connections. - Presents the most advanced information regarding the role of the autophagic system in life and death - Examines whether autophagy acts fundamentally as a cell survivor or cell death pathway or both - Introduces new, more effective therapeutic strategies in the development of targeted drugs and programmed cell death, providing information that will aid in preventing detrimental inflammation - Features recent advancements in the molecular mechanisms underlying a large number of genetic and epigenetic diseases and abnormalities, including atherosclerosis and CNS tumors, and their development and treatment - Includes chapters authored by leaders in the field around the globe—the broadest, most expert coverage available

This book deals with the paradoxical role of autophagy in tumor suppression and tumor promotion in cancer cells. Autophagy plays opposing, context-dependent roles in tumors; accordingly, strategies based on inhibiting or stimulating autophagy could offer as potential cancer therapies. The book elucidates the physiological role of autophagy in modulating cancer metastasis, which is the primary cause of cancer-associated mortality. Further, it reviews its role in the differentiation, development, and activation of multiple immune cells, and its potential applications in tumor immunotherapy. In addition, it examines the effect of epigenetic modifications of autophagy-associated genes in regulating tumor growth and therapeutic response and summarizes autophagy’s role in the development of resistance to a variety of anti-cancer drugs in cancer cells. In closing, it assesses autophagy as a potential therapeutic target for cancer treatment. Given its scope, the book offers a valuable asset for all oncologists and researchers who wish to understand the potential role of autophagy in tumor biology.

With the explosion of information on autophagy in cancer, this is an opportune time to speed the efforts to translate our current knowledge about autophagy regulation into better understanding of its role in cancer. This book will cover the latest advances in this area from the basics, such as the molecular machinery for autophagy induction and regulation, up to the current areas of interest such as modulation of autophagy and drug discovery for cancer prevention and treatment. The text will include an explanation on how autophagy can function in both oncogenesis and tumor suppression and a description of its function in tumor development and tumor suppression through its roles in cell survival, cell death, cell growth as well as its influences on inflammation, immunity, DNA damage, oxidative stress, tumor microenvironment, etc. The remaining chapters will cover topics on autophagy and cancer therapy. These pages will serve as a description on how the pro-survival function of autophagy may help cancer cells resist chemotherapy and radiation treatment as well as how the pro-death functions of autophagy may enhance cell death in response to cancer therapy, and how to target autophagy for cancer prevention and therapy − what to target and how to target it. ​

Advances in Cancer Research, Volume 150, the latest release in this ongoing series, covers the relationship(s) between autophagy and senescence, how they are defined, and the influence of these cellular responses on tumor dormancy and disease recurrence. Specific sections in this new release include Autophagy and senescence, converging roles in pathophysiology, Cellular senescence and tumor promotion: role of the unfolded protein response, autophagy and senescence in cancer stem cells, Targeting the stress support network regulated by autophagy and senescence for cancer treatment, Autophagy and PTEN in DNA damage-induced senescence, mTOR as a senescence manipulation target: A forked road, and more. Addresses the relationship between autophagy and senescence in cancer therapy Covers autophagy and senescence in tumor dormancy Explores autophagy and senescence in disease recurrence

This book is devoted to innovative medicine, comprising the proceedings of the Uehara Memorial Foundation Symposium 2014. It remains extremely rare for the findings of basic research to be developed into clinical applications, and it takes a long time for the process to be achieved. The task of advancing the development of basic research into clinical reality lies with translational science, yet the field seems to struggle to find a way to move forward. To create innovative medical technology, many steps need to be taken: development and analysis of optimal animal models of human diseases, elucidation of genomic and epidemiological data, and establishment of “proof of concept”. There is also considerable demand for progress in drug research, new surgical procedures, and new clinical devices and equipment. While the original research target may be rare diseases, it is also important to apply those findings more broadly to common diseases. The book covers a wide range of topics and is organized into three complementary parts. The first part is basic research for innovative medicine, the second is translational research for innovative medicine, and the third is new technology for innovative medicine. This book helps to understand innovative medicine and to make progress in its realization.

Macroautophagy, the major lysosomal pathway for recycling intracellular components including whole organelles, has emerged as a key process modulating tumorigenesis, tumor–stroma interactions, and cancer therapy. An impressive number of studies over the past decade have unraveled the plastic role of autophagy during tumor development and dissemination. The discoveries that autophagy may either support or repress neoplastic growth and contextually favor or weaken resistance and impact antitumor immunity have spurred efforts from many laboratories trying to conceptualize the complex role of autophagy in cancer using cellular and preclinical models. This complexity is further accentuated by recent findings highlighting that various autophagy-related genes have roles beyond this catabolic mechanism and interface with oncogenic pathways, other trafficking and degradation mechanisms and the cell death machinery. From a therapeutic perspective, knowledge of how autophagy modulates the tumor microenvironment is crucial to devise autophagy-targeting strategies using smart combination of drugs or anticancer modalities. This eBook contains a collection of reviews by autophagy researchers and provides a background to the state-of-the-art in the field of autophagy in cancer, focusing on various aspects of autophagy regulation ranging from its molecular components to its cell autonomous role, e.g. in cell division and oncogenesis, miRNAs regulation, cross-talk with cell death pathways as well as cell non-autonomous role, e.g. in secretion, interface with tumor stroma and clinical prospects of autophagy-based biomarkers and autophagy modulators in anticancer therapy. This eBook is part of the TransAutophagy initiative to better understand the clinical implications of autophagy in cancer.

This book illustrates various aspects of cancer cell metabolism, including metabolic regulation in solid tumours vs. non-solid tumours, the molecular pathways involved in its metabolism, and the role of the tumour microenvironment in the regulation of cancer cell metabolism. It summarizes the complexity of cancer cell metabolism in terms of the switch from anaerobic to aerobic glycolysis and how mitochondrial damage promotes aerobic glycolysis in cancer cells. The respective chapters provide the latest information on the metabolic remodelling of cancer cells and elucidate the important role of the signalling pathways in reprogramming of cancer cell metabolism. In addition, the book highlights the role of autophagy in cancer cell metabolism, and how metabolic crosstalk between cancer cells and cancer-associated fibroblasts promotes cancer cell progression. In closing, it summarizes recent advancements in drug development through targeting cancer metabolism.

This book is a collection of selected and relevant research, concerning the developments within the Cell Death field of study. Each contribution comes as a separate chapter complete in itself but directly related to the books topics and objectives. The target audience comprises scholars and specialists in the field.

Genetic alterations in cancer, in addition to being the fundamental drivers of tumorigenesis, can give rise to a variety of metabolic adaptations that allow cancer cells to survive and proliferate in diverse tumor microenvironments. This metabolic flexibility is different from normal cellular metabolic processes and leads to heterogeneity in cancer metabolism within the same cancer type or even within the same tumor. In this book, we delve into the complexity and diversity of cancer metabolism, and highlight how understanding the heterogeneity of cancer metabolism is fundamental to the development of effective metabolism-based therapeutic strategies. Deciphering how cancer cells utilize various nutrient resources will enable clinicians and researchers to pair specific chemotherapeutic agents with patients who are most likely to respond with positive outcomes, allowing for more cost-effective and personalized cancer therapeutic strategies.