The overexpression of p-Akt in stage I–IIIA NSCLC was associated with lymph node metastasis (χ2=6.1189; P=0.013) and tumor-node-metastasis (TNM) stage (χ2=8.9752; P=0.011), however, no correlation was observed with gender, age, pathological type and histological grade. Here, AKT1 is linked to non-small cell lung carcinoma.