Among 28 cases of primary tumors, only 5 cases had high p-AKT nuclear expression, compared to 7 out of 15 cases of lymph node metastases (P = 0.045), indicating that there was a higher percentage of ESCC cells with activated AKT in the lymph node metastases than in the primary tumors (Figure 6B). Here, AKT1 is linked to esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.