A systems biology analysis of autophagy in cancer therapy

•Systems biology approaches are important to understand the regulatory framework orchestrating autophagy in cancer.•Several mathematical and computational tools commonly used in a systems biology approach were proposed.•Numerous autophagic inter-connectivity and cross-talk pathways were summarized at a systems level.•The systems biology strategies on the establishment of a cancer-autophagy PPI network and drug discovery were provided.

Autophagy, which degrades redundant or damaged cellular constituents, is intricately relevant to a variety of human diseases, most notably cancer. Autophagy exerts distinct effects on cancer initiation and progression, due to the intrinsic overlapping of autophagic and cancer signalling pathways. However, due to the complexity of cancer as a systemic disease, the fate of cancer cells is not decided by any one signalling pathway. Numerous autophagic inter-connectivity and cross-talk pathways need to be further clarified at a systems level. In this review, we propose a systems biology perspective for the comprehensive analysis of the autophagy–cancer network, focusing on systems biology analysis in autophagy and cancer therapy. Together, these analyses may not only improve our understanding on autophagy–cancer relationships, but also facilitate cancer drug discovery.