Some studies have shown that the change of autophagic capacity may correlate with malignant transformation. Our study was designed to investigate the expression and significance of two autophagy-related proteins, microtubule-associated protein 1 light chain 3 (LC3) and Beclin 1 in the tumorigenesis and development of epithelial ovarian carcinoma. We observed that the positive expression of LC3 and Beclin 1 was significantly higher in the samples of benign and borderline ovarian tumors than those in malignant epithelial ovarian cancers. The expression of LC3 and Beclin 1 was associated with FIGO stage and histological grade. No significant relationship was observed between age and histological grade. However, we observed that the expression of LC3 was not related to Beclin 1. Therefore, the decrease of autophagic capacity may be related to tumorigenesis and development of epithelial ovarian cancer.