Cancer cells with activating mutations in RAS have high levels of autophagy, necessary for metabolic maintenance and oncogenic transformation (Guo et al., 2011; Lock et al., 2011) but inhibition of MEK has also been shown to activate the AMPK/ULK1 signaling axis and induce autophagy in RAS mutated cancers (Kinsey et al., 2019). This evidence concerns the gene ULK1 and cancer.