Although our results showed a lack of correlation between p-AKT expression and M-stage, which could be due to the small number of cases with distant metastasis (n = 2) in our sample cohort, a significantly higher p-AKT expression was found in metastatic ESCC in lymph nodes, suggesting that PI3K/AKT activation is critical for metastatic colonization which is one of the most ominous features of cancer progression [37]. Here, AKT1 is linked to esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.