Expression and clinical significance of mammalian target of rapamycin/P70 ribosomal protein S6 kinase signaling pathway in human colorectal carcinoma tissue

The activation of mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) has been reported in tumor development, but the role of mTOR in colorectal carcinomas remains unclear. The aim of the present study was to investigate the significance of mTOR and its downstream effector 70 kDa ribosomal protein S6 kinase (P70S6K) in human colorectal carcinomas. The phosphorylated (p-)mTOR and p-P70S6K proteins were examined by immunohistochemistry performed on tissue microarray containing tissue samples obtained from colorectal carcinoma (n=111), adenomatous polyps (n=40) and normal colonic mucosa (n=40), with a comparison between the expression of these proteins and the clinicopathological parameters of patients with carcinomas. The positive expression rates of p-mTOR and p-P70S6k were 60.4 and 65.8%, respectively, in colorectal carcinoma tissue, which was significantly increased compared with the tissue from adenomatous polyps (27.5 and 20%, respectively) and normal colonic mucosa (10.0 and 5.0%, respectively) (P