BECN1 and cancer: Mutations and deletions of autophagy related genes, as well as aberrant expression of autophagy-mediating proteins, have been linked to several cancers in humans, including the loss of BECN1 (coding for beclin 1) in breast, ovarian and prostate cancer [13, 14], mutations in UVRAG, ATG12 and ATG5 in colon and gastric cancer [15, 16], overexpression of p62/SQSTM1 in breast and lung cancer [17] and low expression levels of Bif-1 in prostate cancer [18].