MTOR and medical procedure: PI3K/Akt and MAPK/Erk pathways play a crucial role in colorectal carcinogenesis.39,40 Previous study indicated that CDX2 level negatively correlated with the activity of PI3K/Akt pathway.41,42 Moreover, microarray analysis via KEGG software indicated that PI3K/Akt/MTOR had the marked change in all relevant signalling pathways (Fig. 4a).