Independently of whether the co-deletion of BECN1 plays a role in hereditary BRCA1 breast cancer, decreased BECN1 expression — which results in reduced levels of autophagy (Qu et al., 2003) — may exert effects on the DNA damage repair pathway in sporadic breast cancer similar to those produced by a BRCA1 mutation and loss of heterozygosity in hereditary breast cancer. This evidence concerns the gene BRCA1 and breast cancer.