In agreement with the hypothesis, our study provides clear evidence that vernodalin treatment resulted in the activation (Fig. 1) and nuclear translocation (Fig. 3, Additional file 2: Figure S2 & Additional file 3: Figure S3) of FOXO3a in breast cancer cells via PI3K/Akt inhibition (decrease phosphorylation status of PI3K/Akt and increase translocation of FOXO3a to the nucleus). The gene discussed is AKT1; the disease is breast carcinoma.