NPLOC4 and neoplasm: Our study reveals that DSF promotes autophagy in tumor cells through two primary mechanisms: (1) compensatory enhancement of autophagy due to proteasome inhibition, as evidenced by partial suppression of autophagy upon NPL4 overexpression; and (2) transcriptional upregulation of the autophagy-related gene beclin-1 via enhanced expression of the transcription factor c-Fos.