CASP9 and neoplasm: The activation of Akt by PI3K attenuates apoptosis and facilitates tumor cell growth via phosphorylation to inhibit various downstream targets, including the pro-apoptotic Bad, Bax, and caspase-9 (Franke et al., 2003; Liu et al., 2011), as well as transcription factors (Babchia et al., 2010) and other protein kinases (Tang and Lasky, 2003).