AKT1 and esophageal squamous cell carcinoma: Within these models, EGFR protein, EGFR phosphorylation and downstream effectors extracellular signal–regulated kinase (ERK) and AKT were variably present, but consistently higher than observed in two EGFR nonamplified ESCC lines, TE10 and KYSE70 (Fig. 1b and Supplementary Fig. 1).