AKT1 and colonic neoplasm: De Boeck et al., found that BM-MSCs increased the invasion, survival and tumorigenesis of various colon cancer cell lines in vitro through the release of soluble NRG1 and subsequent activation of the HER2/HER3-dependent PI3K/Akt signalling cascade in colon tumour cells, and that co-administration of these BM-MSCs with the various cancer cell lines in vivo increased the percentage of animals presenting with tumours a number of weeks after injection [75].