Is Autophagy Always a Barrier to Cisplatin Therapy?

Cisplatin has long been a first-line chemotherapeutic agent in the treatment of cancer, largely for solid tumors. During the course of the past two decades, autophagy has been identified in response to cancer treatments and almost uniformly detected in studies involving cisplatin. There has been increasing recognition of autophagy as a critical factor affecting tumor cell death and tumor chemoresistance. In this review and commentary, we introduce four mechanisms of resistance to cisplatin followed by a discussion of the factors that affect the role of autophagy in cisplatin-sensitive and resistant cells and explore the two-sided outcomes that occur when autophagy inhibitors are combined with cisplatin. Our goal is to analyze the potential for the combinatorial use of cisplatin and autophagy inhibitors in the clinic.

Automated summary

Cisplatin, a first-line chemotherapy drug for cancer, has been found to induce autophagy in response to cancer treatments. Autophagy has been increasingly recognized as a critical factor in tumor cell death and chemoresistance. This review discusses the mechanisms of resistance to cisplatin and explores the role of autophagy in both cisplatin-sensitive and resistant cells, as well as the potential dual outcomes of combining autophagy inhibitors with cisplatin. The goal is to analyze the possible clinical application of combining cisplatin and autophagy inhibitors.