PTEN and cancer: NDDs and cancer signal through common cellular pathways, including MAPK and PI3K/ PDK1/AKT/mTOR with phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN) (Jang et al., 2021), critical in cell division and growth, thus proliferation and cell differentiation (Crawford et al., 1994; Jang et al., 2023; Qi et al., 2016).