BECN1 and neoplasm: Beclin 1 protein expression was negatively related to liver and distant metastasis (p < 0.05), but not correlated with age, sex, depth of invasion, lymphatic or venous invasion, lymph node metastasis, tumor-node-metastasis (TNM) staging, differentiation or serum carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) concentration (p > 0.05).