Given that nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB), phosphoinositol 3'-kinase (PI3K), protein kinase B (AKT), mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR), mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) and extracellular signal regulated kinase (ERK) play crucial roles in cancer cell survival and proliferation18–21, they were examined in HepG2 cells by immunoblotting. Here, MTOR is linked to cancer.