Recent studies have shown that autophagy might be another type of programmed cell death.23 To further explore the role of survivin inhibition in HNSCC autophagy, we measured LC3 dot punctate (Figures 2a and b), a gold standard in detecting autophagy, in CAL27 cells in response to YM155 treatment. This evidence concerns the gene MAP1LC3A and head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.