BCL2L1 and lung cancer: To unveil the role of autophagy in lung cancer, the current study was designed and conducted based on our previous work, in which we found that let-7a-5p along with its 4 target genes, including BCL2-like protein 1 (BCL2L1), insulin-like growth factor 1 receptor (IGF1R), mitogen-activated protein kinase 8 (MAPK8), and FAS, were putatively associated with the autophagy of lung cancer cells (10), and BCL2L1 was confirmed to be negatively correlated with the survival of lung cancer patients.