Autophagy is a lysosomal recycling process essential for tissue or cell homeostasis. The role of autophagy in cancer is complex with either tumor suppressive or pro-carcinogenetic activities. This question has been addressed by Kevin Ryan's laboratory by using Kras-driven genetic engineering mouse models in order to decipher the involvement of essential Atg5/7 autophagy genes and p53 status in pancreatic homeostasis and carcinogenetic progression. The authors show that combined loss of autophagy and p53 dramatically promotes progression from early Pancreatic Intraepithelial Neoplasia (PanIN) lesions towards adenocarcinoma and alters the cellular metabolism with an enrichment of anabolic pathway that can fuel the tumor growth.
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