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Updated: Mar 6, 2026

Quantitative Analysis of Autophagy using Advanced 3D Fluorescence Microscopy
Published on: May 3, 2013
Influence of autophagy on the efficacy of radiotherapy
Shing Yau Tam1, Vincent Wing Cheung Wu1, Helen Ka Wai Law2
1Department of Health Technology and Informatics, Faculty of Health and Social Sciences, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China.
Abstract:
Autophagy is an important catabolic process in which cells digest and recycle their own cytoplasmic contents for maintaining cellular homeostasis. Interestingly, autophagy could play both pro-death and pro-survival roles in influencing the development of cancer via various signal pathways. As radiotherapy is one of the main treatment modalities for cancer, we reviewed the effect of autophagy modulations on radiosensitivity and radiotherapy efficacy in various cancer types. The future development of autophagy modifications for improving radiotherapy efficacy and cancer prognosis will also be discussed.
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