Genetic variants in the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) signaling pathway as predictors of clinical response and survival in women with ovarian cancer

Abstract

Objective: The mTOR pathway promotes cell survival and proliferation and is commonly altered in human tumors. Preliminary evidence suggests this pathway's involvement in chemoresistance to platinum and taxanes, first-line therapy for epithelial ovarian cancer. In this study,a pathway-based approach was used to identify individual germline single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and cumulative effects of multiple genetic variants in mTOR pathway genes and their association with clinical outcome in women with ovarian cancer.