**Regulation of Autophagy Is a Novel Tumorigenesis-Related Activity of Multifunctional Translationally Controlled Tumor Protein**

### **Ji-Sun Lee, Eun-Hwa Jang, Hyun Ae Woo and Kyunglim Lee \***

Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, College of Pharmacy, Ewha Womans University, Seoul 03760, Korea; leejisun78@hanmail.net (J.-S.L.); ehj\_@naver.com (E.-H.J.); hawoo@ewha.ac.kr (H.A.W.) **\***Correspondence:klyoon@ewha.ac.kr;Tel.:+82-2-3277-3024

 Received: 14 November 2019; Accepted: 17 January 2020; Published: 20 January 2020

**Abstract:** Translationally controlled tumor protein (TCTP) is highly conserved in eukaryotic organisms and plays multiple roles regulating cellular growth and homeostasis. Because of its anti-apoptotic activity and its role in the regulation of cancer metastasis, TCTP has become a promising target for cancer therapy. Moreover, growing evidence points to its clinical role in cancer prognosis. How TCTP regulates cellular growth in cancer has been widely studied, but how it regulates cellular homeostasis has received relatively little attention. This review discusses how TCTP is related to cancer and its potential as a target in cancer therapeutics, including its novel role in the regulation of autophagy. Regulation of autophagy is essential for cell recycling and scavenging cellular materials to sustain cell survival under the metabolic stress that cancer cells undergo during their aggressive proliferation.

**Keywords:** TCTP; cancer; autophagy
