AKT1 and melanoma: A major effort in melanoma research has thus been to identify novel treatment strategies targeting major molecular pathways, particularly the Ras → Raf → MEK → MAP kinase/ERK (MAPK) and PI3K/Akt signaling pathways, which are commonly over-activated by genetic alterations, such as the BRAF mutations in the MAPK pathway [6] and the PIK3CA amplification and PTEN mutations in the PI3K/Akt pathway [7]–[9].