Autophagy variation in the tumor cell determines the likelihood of cell living or dying and thus affecting the success or failure of a therapy intended to reduce tumor growth.23, 27 It has been reported that expression of LC3A, LC3B and Beclin-1 was the highest in TNBC cells among the primary breast cancer cells from patients, indicative of high basal autophagy.11 It is possible that high levels of basal autophagy in TNBC cells would presumably make induction of excessive autophagic cell death easier. The gene discussed is BECN1; the disease is breast cancer.