BECN1 and neoplasm: Adding to the evidence that autophagy plays a tumor-suppressing role in HCC was the fact that knockout of the key autophagy gene Beclin1, the only dual function molecule acting as both tumor suppressor and autophagy modulator [16], in mice model [17], led to reduced autophagy activity and increased HCC initiating ability [17], which was evidenced by more studies showing that Beclin1 was associated with HCC progression and thus could be a potential prognostic biomarker for HCC patients [18].