The many roads to cell death: Discriminating between apoptosis, necrosis and autophagy

Cell death is crucial for the proper execution of normal and pathophysiological processes and is ubiquitous in biological systems. Programmed forms of cell death are responsible for producing morphological patterns during development, negative selection during immunity, and the molecular 'arms race' that occurs between viral and host genes during infection, as well as for tissue damage that occurs with environmental stressors such as genotoxins. Alterations within these cell death pathways can manifest as disease, including cancer, degenerative disorders and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). The ability of tumour cells to elude programmed cell death is a hallmark of most types of cancer.