Recent reports showed that autophagy might be involved in hepatic cell carcinoma (HCC) metastasis through facilitating anoikis resistance and lung colonization of HCC cells [18], while inhibition of PHLDA2 (pleckstrin homology-like domain family A member 2) could increase apoptosis in colorectal cancer cells partly through the activation of autophagy [19]. The gene discussed is PHLDA2; the disease is hepatocellular carcinoma.