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The 'grow and survive' circuit: PI3K to AKT to mTOR, with PTEN as the off switch. The most frequently altered pathway in cancer, and one of the hardest to drug without hitting blood sugar and skin.
Pick a product above a diagram to see the nodes it hits and the escape routes below the block. Hover or tap any node or arrow for what it is; every node opens its target, glossary entry or the pathway page. Violet boxes are druggable targets.
Think of a factory: the receptor is the order desk, PI3K and AKT are the managers relaying the order, PTEN is the accountant cancelling orders, and mTOR is the assembly line. Cancer forges orders (PIK3CA mutation) or fires the accountant (PTEN loss).
In plain words, then the glossary entries the stage rests on. Chapter 3, Replication and growth machinery: Cancer cells use the same engine as normal cells, only stuck at full throttle.
The 'grow and survive' circuit: PI3K to AKT to mTOR, with PTEN as the off switch. The most frequently altered pathway in cancer, and one of the hardest to drug without hitting blood sugar and skin.
PI3K / AKT / mTOR. The cell's 'grow and survive' circuit. Growth signals from the surface switch on PI3K, which switches on AKT, which switches on mTOR, which builds proteins and blocks self-destruction.
The proteins and genes at this stage, with their role and how many products act on each. Listed players come from the atlas; drawn players sit as nodes in the diagrams above.
PIK3CA is the most commonly mutated gene in hormone-driven breast cancer. Drugs against it work, but hitting it cleanly without raising blood sugar took years.
AKT is a central survival kinase downstream of PI3K, blocked by capivasertib in breast and now prostate cancer.
A growth-signal receptor. Some cancers make far too much of it, and drugs that block it or use it as a docking site have transformed those cancers.
Products grouped by the node they hit, most advanced first, with the cancers an approved product is linked to. Pick one above the diagram to see it light up.
Records tied to this stage that describe resistance, evasion or tolerance. Resistance: how tumours escape each drug class lists the routes class by class.
Biomarkers, tests and assays in the corpus that read this stage in a patient.
What is not known at this stage: the atlas's own questions, the bottlenecks it bears on, and the ideas in the corpus that try to answer them.
Papers in the corpus tied to this stage's pathways, targets and terms, newest first.
src/data/mechanics-atlas.ts). Players, medicines, escape routes, tests, ideas and papers are resolved from the knowledge graph at build time through the stage's pathways, targets and terms, so every item here has its own page and sources. Where a section is missing, the corpus has no record tied to the stage yet. Nothing here is medical advice; see about and methodology. Stage 3.5 of 56.