The growth and dissemination of tumor cells is determined by various alterations in genes encoding for proteins involved in the control of cell growth, proliferation, differentiation and cell death. In this contest, a key role is played by the pathway of PI3K/AKT/mTOR and alterations of the components of this pathway are involved in the pathogenesis of many human tumors (1).

Science is almost exclusively concerned with the “accessible unknown”; that is, what can be investigated using the current knowledge as a starting point. In other words, scientists only address — and talk about — questions they have a chance to answer using available tools and knowledge. If a subject is too far from what we know at a given time, we assign it to the realm of the distant future, science fiction, or metaphysics.

Personalized medicine is commonly described as moving away from a one-size-fits-all approach, towards healthcare services that are tailored to the needs and characteristics of individuals. Its focus on profiling, prevention, early detection, and tailored treatments is considered as a good way to rise to the political, social and scientific challenges characterising contemporary healthcare.

In the intestine and, particularly, in enterocytes, nutrients are modulators of various cellular functions and may be involved in tissue immune response and inflammation (1). Dietary proteins are often incompletely digested by the intestinal proteases and residual peptides can have biological effects (2).

In recent years debate has spurred over the potential conflict between two emerging paradigms in biomedicine: Personalized Medicine (PM) and Person-Centered Medicine (PCM). Though both P-Med and PCM aim at tailoring therapies to the individual level, they do so by resorting to different conceptual frameworks and techniques.