Figure 3.

Lung cancer and autophagy pathway. The blue arrows show the relationships between autophagy and occurrence/development of lung cancer. C-K activates mTOR through AMPK signal pathway, inactivation of ULKI induced by mTOR increases autophagy and participates in the growth and migration of tumor cells. EGFR-TKI involves in the development of lung cancer by inhibiting autophagy levels. The yellow arrows show that inhibiting autophagy enhances the sensitivity of lung cancer to chemotherapy drugs.

AMPK, adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase; C-K, compound K; EGFR-TKI, epidermal growth factor receptor-tyrosine kinase inhibitor; mTOR mammalian target of rapamycin.