Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2021. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastrointest Oncol. Nov 15, 2021; 13(11): 1632-1647
Published online Nov 15, 2021. doi: 10.4251/wjgo.v13.i11.1632
Role of mammalian target of rapamycin complex 2 in primary and secondary liver cancer
Katharina Joechle, Jessica Guenzle, Claus Hellerbrand, Pavel Strnad, Thorsten Cramer, Ulf Peter Neumann, Sven Arke Lang
Katharina Joechle, Thorsten Cramer, Ulf Peter Neumann, Sven Arke Lang, Department of General, Visceral and Transplantation Surgery, University Hospital Rheinisch-Westfälisch Technische Hochschule Aachen, Aachen 52074, Germany
Jessica Guenzle, Department of General and Visceral Surgery, Medical Center-University of Freiburg, Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg, Freiburg 79106, Germany
Claus Hellerbrand, Institute of Biochemistry, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen 91054, Germany
Pavel Strnad, Department of Internal Medicine III, University Hospital Rheinisch-Westfälisch Technische Hochschule Aachen, Aachen 52074, Germany
Author contributions: Joechle K and Lang SA contributed to conception and design the article; Joechle K, Hellerbrand C and Strnad P contributed to acquisition of data, drafting the article; All authors contributed to critical revision for important content and approved the final manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflicting interests.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Sven Arke Lang, FEBS, MD, Professor, Senior Researcher, Surgeon, Department of General, Visceral and Transplantation Surgery, University Hospital Rheinisch-Westfälisch Technische Hochschule Aachen, Pauwelsstraße 30, Aachen 52074, Germany.svlang@ukaachen.de
Received: February 25, 2021
Peer-review started: February 25, 2021
First decision: April 19, 2021
Revised: April 30, 2021
Accepted: August 16, 2021
Article in press: August 16, 2021
Published online: November 15, 2021
Core Tip

Core Tip: Mammalian target of rapamycin complex 2 (mTORC2) has recently gained importance in cancer research, as it is one of the key effectors of the PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway and stimulates cell growth, cell survival, metabolism, and cytoskeletal organization. Rictor, the central subunit of mTORC2, was found to be upregulated in different kinds of cancers and is associated with a bad prognosis. We herein discuss the implications of mTORC2 in primary and secondary liver cancer.