MTOR and renal carcinoma: Since the AKT/mTOR and autophagy pathway has been reported to be dysregulated in a variety of tumors including ccRCC [4, 30, 31] with potential to alter chemotherapeutic cellular response, we assessed the baseline expression and activation status of key signaling mediators in the AKT/mTOR pathway across a subset of malignant renal cancer cell lines.