Whereas autophagy suppression (i.e., ATG5 knockdown or 3-MA) increases tumor cells’ death, in non-malignant cells (e.g. fibroblasts and murine embryonic fibroblasts, MEFs) autophagy-deficiency paradoxically alleviates mitochondrial cytochrome c release, caspase 3 activation, PARP1 cleavage, and turn apoptosis induction. Here, CASP3 is linked to neoplasm.