The role of autophagy in cancer metastasis seems to be complex. During early stages autophagy can play an inhibitory effect on metastasis. However, during advanced stages, autophagy acts as metastatasis promoter.
A recent review (Su et al, 2015) summarizes some of these aspects (see link). I am working in hepatocellular carcinoma, but my experience analyzing the relationship between autophagy and metastasis is limited.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4343053/pdf/12943_2015_Article_321.pdf
Dear Jose,
Unfortunately, no one, even big names, can provide you with a crystal-clear or black-&-white response.
Autophagy can be detrimental as well as beneficial for a given cancer cell population, depending on the stage of development and tumor miroenvironment.
Unfortunately, there are too few reliable and comprehensive in vivo studies today with "autophagy inducers" to have a sound appreciation about "autophagy and cancer and/or metastasis".
Sorry to be so limited in my response,
Robert
Hola, José Luis. Here I have some info for you. Apparently autophagy can be stimulated during fasting and there are already papers showing the benefits for cancer patients (although most studies have been conducted on rats). Please use this info to explore the subjetc:
Human studies: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cmet.2014.02.006
A nice review: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cmet.2013.12.008
It seems that fasting regenerates the immune system (DOI: 10.1016/j.stem.2014.04.014). Also, normal cells adapt quite well to fasting while cancer cells have a bigger problem with that. I hope this helps.
See you in March!
javier
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