Autophagy is an intracellular lysosomal degradation process involved in multiple facets of cancer biology. Various dimensions of autophagy are associated with tumor growth and cancer progression, and here we focus on the dimensions involved in regulation of cell survival/cell death, cell proliferation and tumor dormancy. The first dimension of autophagy supports cell survival under stress within tumors and under certain contexts drives cell death, impacting tumor growth. The second dimension of autophagy promotes proliferation through directly regulating cell cycle or indirectly maintaining metabolism, increasing tumor growth. The third dimension of autophagy facilitates tumor cell dormancy, contributing to cancer treatment resistance and cancer recurrence. The intricate relationship between these three dimensions of autophagy influences the extent of tumor growth and cancer progression. In this review, we summarize the roles of the three dimensions of autophagy in tumor growth and cancer progression, and discuss unanswered questions in these fields.

自噬是一种细胞内溶酶体降解过程，涉及癌症生物学的多个方面。自噬的各个维度与肿瘤生长和癌症进展相关，这里我们重点关注参与调节细胞存活/细胞死亡、细胞增殖和肿瘤休眠的维度。自噬的第一维支持肿瘤内压力下的细胞存活，并在某些情况下驱动细胞死亡，影响肿瘤生长。自噬的第二个维度通过直接调节细胞周期或间接维持代谢促进增殖，促进肿瘤生长。自噬的第三个维度促进肿瘤细胞休眠，导致癌症治疗抵抗和癌症复发。自噬这三个维度之间的错综复杂的关系影响着肿瘤生长和癌症进展的程度。在这篇综述中，我们总结了自噬的三个维度在肿瘤生长和癌症进展中的作用，并讨论了这些领域未解决的问题。