Our results indicated that one major signaling pathway potently induced by CAF secretions in pancreatic cancer cells is the PI3K-Akt pathway, as demonstrated using phosphorylation of Akt as a readout (Figure 6A-6B); Akt phosphorylation is also observed upon treatment of pancreatic cancer cells with rIL-6 (Figure 6C), but not with the secretions of CAFs previously treated with SOM230 (Figure 6A-6C). Here, AKT1 is linked to pancreatic neoplasm.