·AIM: To discuss the prognostic significant of autophagy related proteins(ARPs) in retinoblastoma(RB)and to find the molecular marker to distinguish retinocytoma(RC) and RB by investigating the different expression profiling of microtubule-associated protein light chain 3(LC3B) and other ARPs in RC and RB.·METHODS: Specimens with retinocytoma region(RCR)or mainly composed with Flexner-Winterstein rosettes(FWR) were screen out from 219 paraffin-embedded RB samples and respectively taken as RCR group and FWR group. Others were taken as undifferentiated(UD) group.Immunochemistry(IHC) of LC3 B and electronic microscopy was used to identify autophagy. The IHC scores of LC3 B and other ARPs, such as Beclin, PTEN,p27, p16INK4 a, mTOR and BCL-2 were compared and correlation analysis was applied to find potential proteins which may involve in autophagy regulation. The prognostics significance of LC3 B was evaluated by comparing the high risk features(HRFs) in 3 groups of total 219 samples.·RESULTS: Twenty-one specimens with RCR and 36 specimens mainly composed with FWR were screen out.RCR cell had a high level of LC3 B and lots of autophagic vacuoles. Beclin, PTEN, p27 had positive correlation with LC3, and p16INK4 ahad negative correlation, while the expression of mTOR and BCL-2 in RCR and RB region did not show any difference. Cases with RCR had lower rate of HRFs than undifferentiated cases.·CONCLUSION: ARPs had different expression pattern between RCR and other pathological types of RB, and could be ideal markers to distinguish RC from RB. Our finding indicated cases with RCR had favorable prognosis just like those with FWR. · AIM: To discuss the prognostic significant of autophagy related proteins (ARPs) in retinoblastoma (RB) and to find the molecular marker to distinguish retinocytoma (RC) and RB by investigating the different expression profiling of microtubule-associated protein light chain 3 (LC3B ) and other ARPs in RC and RB. METHODS: Specimens with retinocytoma region (RCR) or mainly composed with Flexner-Winterstein rosettes (FWR) were screen out from 219 paraffin-embedded RB samples and were taken as RCR group and FWR group. The IHC scores of LC3 B and other ARPs, such as Beclin, PTEN, p27, p16 INK4 a, mTOR and BCL -2 were compared and correlation analysis was applied to find potential proteins which may involve in autophagy regulation. The prognostic significance of LC3 B was evaluated by comparing the high risk features (HRFs) in 3 groups of total 219 samples. · R ESULTS: Twenty-one specimens with RCR and 36 specimens mainly composed with FWR were screen out. RCR cell had a high level of LC3 B and lots of autophagic vacuoles. Beclin, PTEN, p27 had positive correlation with LC3, and p16INK4 ahad negative correlation , while the expression of mTOR and BCL-2 in RCR and RB region did not show any difference. Cases with RCR had lower rate of HRFs than undifferentiated cases. • CONCLUSION: ARPs had different expression pattern between RCR and other pathological types of RB, And could could ideal markers to distinguish RC from RB. Our finding indicated cases with RCR had favorable prognosis just like those with FWR.