Liang et al. foundthat the level of Beclin-1 in breast carcinoma wassignificantly lower than in normal breast epithelialtissues; the transfection of Beclin-l to human breastcancer cell line MCF7 inhibited in vitro proliferationand tumorigenicity of these cells, suggesting that thedecline of cell autophagic activity may be associatedwith the initiation and development of tumors (8).Ectopic endometrial cells from endometriosis patientshave similar biological characteristics to thoseof cancer cells. This evidence concerns the gene BECN1 and endometriosis.