mTOR Signaling Confers Resistance to Targeted Cancer Drugs

Cancer is a complex disease and a leading cause of death worldwide. Extensive research over decades has led to the development of therapies that target cancer-specific signaling pathways. However, the clinical benefits of such drugs are at best transient due to tumors displaying intrinsic or adaptive resis- tance. The underlying compensatory pathways that allow cancer cells to cir-cumvent a drug blockade are poorly understood. We review here recent studies suggesting that mammalian TOR (mTOR) signaling is a major compensatory pathway conferring resistance to many cancer drugs. mTOR-mediated resis-tance can be cell-autonomous or non-cell-autonomous. These findings suggest that mTOR signaling should be monitored routinely in tumors and that an mTOR inhibitor should be considered as a co-therapy.

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