Chen et al. demonstrated the antagonistic regulation of autophagy by cyclic HIPK3 (circHIPK3) and linear HIPK3 in lung cancer, in which the deletion of cycHIPK3 induced autophagy through the MIR124-3p-STAT3-PRKAA/AMPKa axis and significantly inhibited cell proliferation, migration, and invasion (Chen et al., 2020). Here, HIPK3 is linked to lung cancer.