STK11 and breast cancer: In addition, it has been elucidated that ADIPOQ overexpression induces autophagy and apoptosis in BC cells by activating the serine/threonine protein kinase 1/liver kinase B1 (STK11/LKB1)-associated AMP-activated protein kinase-Unc-51-like kinase 1 (AMPK–ULK1) pathway to decrease BC growth and progression (Chung et al., 2017; Zhang et al., 2017).