BECN1 and cutaneous melanoma: In addition, the finding of an altered expression of Beclin-1 in our study population sounds particularly attractive, if we consider that recent evidence suggests that alterations in autophagy may be a major mechanism of tumor escape from immune surveillance also by interfering with signaling pathways in tumor and immune cells (72) and autophagy-associated cell death has emerged as a key immunogenic mechanism able to potentiate tumor response to therapy in several human malignancies and in skin melanoma (29, 58–68).