The effects of AR overexpression and AR knockdown/knockout on lactate formation, the expression of inflammatory cytokines, and the most important Warburg effect regulating pathway, the AKT/mTOR signaling pathway, were evaluated in vitro in cultured liver cancer cells and in vivo in the livers of DEN-induced transgenic HCC model mice. The gene discussed is MTOR; the disease is hepatocellular carcinoma.