Pharmacologically inhibiting ER stress using chemical inhibitors such as cycloheximide or mithramycin not only blocked the induction of Grp78, IRE1 or GADD 153, but also inhibited DIM induced expression of Atg12, LC3B and p62 in SKOV-3 and OVCAR-3 ovarian cancer cells. The gene discussed is MAP1LC3B; the disease is ovarian cancer.