The discovery of frequent loss of the autophagy regulator Beclin-1 (BECN1) in many cases of human breast, ovarian, and prostate cancers has shed light on the role of autophagy in oncology, suggesting that BECN1 may act as a tumor suppressor gene, particularly in individuals with only one functional copy (Yue et al., 2003; Qu et al., 2003; Karantza-Wadsworth et al., 2007). This evidence concerns the gene BECN1 and Familial prostate cancer.