AKT1 and lung cancer: Since phospho-Akt regulates antiapoptotic mechanisms and previous in vitro studies showed that its downregulation by the pemetrexed–erlotinib combination correlated with the enhancement of apoptosis and antitumour activity in lung cancer cells (Giovannetti et al, 2008), the reduction of phospho-Akt may explain the increased apoptosis after pemetrexed–vandetanib and carboplatin–vandetanib combinations in MPM cells.