EEF2K and breast cancer: MCF-7 cells are known to be deficient in caspase-3 and haplo-insufficient in beclin 1[35], [36]; however, in our study we found that the responses of MCF-7 cells to nutrient deprivation or growth factor inhibitors are not different from other breast cancer cell lines such as MDA-MB-468, suggesting that the effects of inhibiting eEF-2 kinase on autophagic response and cell survival/death are independent of caspase-3 and beclin 1.