Given the requirement of the Beclin 1 S90 site for the tumor suppressor activity of Beclin 1, it will be interesting to determine whether the lack of MK3-dependent Beclin 1 S90 phosphorylation contributes to the pathogenesis of small cell lung carcinomas that commonly harbor deletions in MK3 (Sithanandam et al., 1996) or of other cancers with frequent heterozygous loss of MK3 such as invasive breast carcinomas, ovarian carcinomas, lung adenocarcinomas and lung squamous cell carcinomas (www.cbioportal.org). The gene discussed is BECN1; the disease is squamous cell lung carcinoma.