LEP and hepatocellular carcinoma: Leptin has been shown to induce proliferation of hepatocellular [7], esophageal [3], breast [34], prostate [9], colon [35], and gastric cancer cell lines [36] and suppresses apoptosis in hepatocellular carcinoma cell lines [7] and esophageal adenocarcinoma cells [3] etc. Although previous studies have demonstrated mutual negative relationship between autophagy and apoptosis, the role of leptin-induced autophagy in the suppression of apoptosis in cancer cells has not been reported.