Up-regulation of Autophagy is a Mechanism of Resistance to Chemotherapy and Can Be Inhibited by Pantoprazole to Increase Drug Sensitivity.

Autophagy is a survival mechanism that allows recycling of cellular breakdown products, particularly in stressed cells. Here we evaluate the hypotheses that up-regulation of autophagy is a common mechanism of resistance to chemotherapy, and that drug resistance can be reversed by inhibiting autophagy with a proton pump inhibitor.