In breast cancer, autophagy is now a new therapeutic target, where several small-molecule compounds may alter the autophagy levels of cancer cells by targeting signaling pathways and proteins, such as the unc-51-like kinase 1 complex, PI3KC1-Akt-mTORC1, Ras-Raf-MAPKs, and p53, improving breast cancer treatment efficacy by overcoming drug resistance (Liao et al. 2022). Here, ULK1 is linked to cancer.