Western blotting using lysates from breast cancer cells treated with DMSO or different concentrations of SFN shows that the level of p-Ser473-Akt decreased gradually with increasing concentration of SFN in MDA MB 231 (70, 50 and 10 % of control cells in cells treated with 10, 20 and 40 μM SFN, respectively), MDA MB 468 (90, 30 and 20 % of DMSO-treated control cells in cells treated with 10, 20 and 40 μM SFN, respectively) and SKBR-3 cells (60, 50 and 10 % of DMSO-treated cells in cells treated with 10, 20 and 40 μM SFN, respectively). The gene discussed is AKT1; the disease is breast carcinoma.