Combination of Nutlin-3 and PI-103 (inhibitor of the PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway) increased Bax activation, caspase-3 cleavage and apoptosis of AML cells, even though induction of several p53 target genes, like p21, NOXA, Bcl2, MDM2 and Survivin were reduced due to mTOR inactivation and attenuation of p53 protein synthesis. Here, MTOR is linked to acute myeloid leukemia.