Programmed cell death (PCD) is genetically regulated cell death, involving a series of gene activation,expression and regulation.Currently, the classical apoptosis is considered as type Ⅰ PCD, whereas autophagic cell death is type Ⅱ PCD, necrosis-like programmed cell death is Ⅲ PCD.These modes of cell death play important roles in tumorigenesis, development, and therapeutics.With the most frontier studies in the field, this review mainly discuss cross-talk between apoptosis and autophagy, key interaction proteins, autophagy and tumorigenesis, cell autophagy, apoptosis and cancer therapy.We also further propose some ideas about how to use the favorable factor of autophagy to enhance the efficacy of cancer therapy from the clinical views.