Pathway link MTORC1-RCC

mTORC1 ~ Renal cell carcinoma (RCC)

mTORC1 is associated with Renal cell carcinoma (RCC).

Many kidney cancers carry changes that leave mTORC1 stuck "on", which is why this cancer responds to mTOR-blocking drugs at all. In one large trial, people with advanced kidney cancer lived longer on temsirolimus; in another, everolimus slowed the cancer's growth for a few months. Responding to the drug is not proof that mTORC1 started the cancer.

Renal cancers frequently carry lesions that leave mTORC1 constitutively active, which is why this tissue responds to mTOR inhibitors. In two phase III trials in metastatic RCC, temsirolimus extended overall survival versus interferon alfa in poor-prognosis patients (HUD2007), and everolimus extended progression-free survival versus placebo after VEGF-targeted therapy (MOT2008). That the tumour responds to the drug is not the same as mTORC1 initiating the cancer.

The conditions it holds under

Correlative, plus two randomised human trials showing the tumour responds to mTOR inhibitors: overall survival in poor-prognosis first-line RCC with temsirolimus (HUD2007), progression-free survival only after VEGF-targeted therapy with everolimus (MOT2008). This is response to treatment, not a demonstration that mTORC1 activation initiates RCC. The bladder-cancer responder case IYE2012 was removed from this edge on 2026-10-09 as a citation-population mismatch (it describes bladder, not kidney).

Time it takes

long exposure (days to weeks)

Step

not yet resolved

Measured in

human

Reaches people?

shown in people

How settled

emerging, few independent studies

Studies behind it

Points the other way

No study in the Atlas contradicts this link. That means none in this curated set, not none in the literature.

Who has checked this

Checked by

No researcher outside the project has checked this link yet.

Curator sign-off

Not signed off yet. This link was drafted with AI help and has not been reviewed link by link; treat it as a proposal until it is.

Curated by

Oliver Barton, with AI help for drafting; see how links are checked.

“How settled” describes how far researchers in the field agree. It is not the same as the sign-off above, which only says whether a named curator has checked this page.

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