Abstract:Autophagy is a cellular catabolic pathway that is essential for survival, differentiation, development and homeostasis. The dual roles of autophagy as a tumorpromoting mechanism and a tumor suppressor mechanism have been elucidated in the recent cancer research. The double function is accomplished by some neoplasmsassociated signaling pathways which include mTORdependent signaling pathway, Beclin1 network, LKB1-AMPK signaling pathway, p53 and p53related regulators of autophagy. Thus it can be seen that these signaling pathways function dependently and correlatively as inducing and inhibiting autophagy and play different roles in the process that involves growth and development of neoplasms.