The primary objective of this study is to determine the effect of drug-induced acute insulin resistance (diaIR) on the ratio of 12α-hydroxylated bile acids (12-HBA) to 12α-hydroxylated bile acids (non-12-HBA) in cancer patients treated with phosphatidylinositol-4,5-bisphosphate kinase (PI3K) inhibitors (PI3Ki), mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) inhibitors (mTORi), and AKT inhibitors (AKTi) once possible. Specifically, this study will: (1) verify the induction of diaIR by monitoring changes in fasting ± postprandial blood glucose, insulin/c-peptide, and fructosamine; and (2) assess qualitative and quantitative changes in the circulating bile acid (BA) pool (including bile acid intermediary metabolites) by mass spectrometry in the fasting ± postprandial states prior to and then at 2 and 4 weeks after starting treatment. This study focuses in particular on determining changes in the 12α-hydroxylated bile acids to 12α-hydroxylated bile acids, as well as each of these subclasses and their individual substituents as a proportion of the overall BA pool.
This is a prospective observational study with a primary goal of monitoring changes in circulating bile acid profiles and parameters of glucose and lipid metabolism prior, during, and after cancer treatment with agents that directly impair insulin action: PI3K inhibitors, AKT inhibitors, and mTOR inhibitors. Patients will not receive any cancer treatment specifically for the purposes of this study. Rather, this study will be based on treatment decisions made independently by participants' oncologists according to standard of care or other clinical trial protocol. This study seeks to enroll at least 25 participants each for PI3K inhibitors, mTOR inhibitors and, once available for open-label treatment, AKT inhibitors.