In vitro data have coupled AKT to the survival pathway of the transcription factor NF-κB. This is particularly interesting given three observations: (1) the frequent constitutive activation of NF-κB in various cancers including pancreatic tumour specimens (Wang et al, 1999), (2) the nuclear immunostaining pattern of pAKT frequently observed in various tumours (Dhawan et al, 2002; Itoh et al, 2002; Perez-Tenorio and Stal, 2002), and (3) the correlation of pAKT immunostaining and nuclear localisation of the p65 subunit of NF-κB in melanoma specimens (Dhawan et al, 2002). This evidence concerns the gene AKT1 and melanoma.