Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2021. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastrointest Oncol. Oct 15, 2021; 13(10): 1229-1243
Published online Oct 15, 2021. doi: 10.4251/wjgo.v13.i10.1229
Role of autophagy in cholangiocarcinoma: An autophagy-based treatment strategy
Evangelos Koustas, Eleni-Myrto Trifylli, Panagiotis Sarantis, Athanasios G Papavassiliou, Michalis V Karamouzis
Evangelos Koustas, Eleni-Myrto Trifylli, Panagiotis Sarantis, Athanasios G Papavassiliou, Michalis V Karamouzis, Department of Biological Chemistry, Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens 11527, Greece
Author contributions: All the authors made substantial contributions to the conception and design of the study, analysis and interpretation of data; Also, drafted the article, made critical revisions and gave the final approval of the version of the article to be published.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflict of interests for this article.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Evangelos Koustas, MD, PhD, Academic Research, Department of Biological Chemistry, Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 75, M. Asias Street, 11527, Athens, Greece. vang.koustas@gmail.com
Received: February 21, 2021
Peer-review started: February 21, 2021
First decision: April 19, 2021
Revised: April 28, 2021
Accepted: August 3, 2021
Article in press: August 3, 2021
Published online: October 15, 2021
Core Tip

Core Tip: The significant role of autophagy in maintaining the energy balance of cancer cells in tumorigenesis remains controversial. A grown body of research data suggests that autophagy is a promising target for several cancer types, including cholangiocarcinomas (CCAs). A novel therapeutic approach which could involve autophagy manipulation plus chemotherapeutic agents may open a new field for more beneficial therapeutic strategies for patients with CCA.