PTEN and renal cell carcinoma: In the PI3K/PTEN/Akt/mTOR pathway, a synthetic lethal interaction is observed in renal cell carcinoma (RCC) cells which lack the von Hippel–Lindau tumor suppressor protein (VHL) as treatment of the cells with rapamycin, an inhibitor of mTORC1 which the tumor cells are dependent on, results in death [15,16].