Specifically, depletion of autophagy related 5 (ATG5) or autophagy related 7 (ATG7) (loss of autophagy), or acyl-CoA synthetase short chain family member 2 (ACSS2) (acetate recapture loss) is well tolerated by most cells in culture, but can dramatically decrease tumor growth in vivo (Amaravadi et al., 2016; Comerford et al., 2014; Schug et al., 2015). The gene discussed is ATG5; the disease is neoplasm.