Tuberous sclerosis patient with neuroendocrine carcinoma of the esophagogastric junction: A case report

Figure 5 Diagram showing that the mammalian target of rapamycin inhibitor suppresses the formation of neuroendocrine tumor by suppressing the AKT-mTOR pathway. In the AKT-mTOR pathway, mutation of tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC)1/TSC2 genes causes mTOR to proliferate and generate neuroendocrine tumor (NET). Sirolimus, an mTOR inhibitor, inhibits the abnormal growth of mTOR, which suppresses the generation of NET. TSC: Tuberous sclerosis complex; AMPK: Adenosine 5'-monophosphate (AMP)-activated protein kinase; ERK: Extracellular regulated protein kinases; RSK: Ribosomal S6 kinase; EBP: Evidence-based practice; NET: Neuroendocrine tumor.