ULK1's role in cancer progression and its emerging therapeutic potential

Macroautophagy (autophagy) enables cellular stress adaptation by degrading damaged components; ULK1, a serine/threonine kinase, initiates this process in response to nutrient and energy cues. While autophagy is well studied, few investigations have directly tested ULK1 in cancer progression. Emerging functional data across numerous cancers indicate that ULK1 can promote or restrain malignant behavior through both autophagy-dependent and autophagy-independent mechanisms, modulating mitochondrial quality, anoikis escape, invasion, therapy adaptation, and immune visibility. Pharmacology has advanced from early ULK1/2 inhibitors to structure-guided and machine learning-derived inhibitors with improved potency and selectivity. The first clinical agent, DCC-3116, demonstrates on-target engagement with acceptable tolerability and is being evaluated in combinations where therapy induces autophagy. Here, we review ULK1 as a regulator of cancer progression, synthesizing pan-cancer clinical and functional evidence alongside the evolving pharmacology of ULK1 modulation to define the settings in which its targeted inhibition may be most effectively translated.