Niu et al. Journal of Experimental & Clinical Cancer Research 2011, 30:28 http://www.jeccr.com/content/30/1/28 Page 4 of 8 Figure 2 Rapamycin administered at 20 nM was able to potentiate the growth inhibitory effect of docetaxel in four lung cancer cells. exposed to rapamycin (10 nM, 20 nM) and docetaxel (1 nM, 10 nM) alone or in combination (Rapa 20 nM+ DTX 10 nM). After 24 hr of incubation, the expression and the phosphorylation levels of ERK1/2 were exam- ined. As presented in Figure 5, a 24-hr exposure to rapamycin or docetaxel alone did not significantly alter the level of expression or phosphorylation of ERK1/2, whereas cells treated with the combination of rapamycin Figure 3 Rapamycin enhances the apoptosis effect of docetaxel in lung cancer cells. *P < 0.05, significantly different from untreated control; **P < 0.05, significantly different from either rapamycin or docetaxel monotherapy. Figure 4 Rapamycin and docetaxel decrease the level of Survivin expression while the expression of caspase-3 is unaffected. (A) The presence of various proteins was detected by Western blot. (B) The relative level of Survivin and caspase-3 expression to GAPDH is shown in bar graph.