Besides playing a role in insulin signalling and in mediating anti-apoptotic stimuli triggered by multiple exogenous stimuli, Akt has been shown to be overexpressed in a variety of human tumour cell lines and cancers (Bellacosa et al, 1995; Ringel et al, 2001; Roy et al, 2002) and to be a mediator of oestrogen resistance in breast cancer cells (Campbell et al, 2001). This evidence concerns the gene AKT1 and neoplasm.