AKT1 and neoplasm: The gene microarray results indicated that the PI3K/Akt and MAPK/Erk pathways were downregulated in KG1α cells stably transfected with shEPS8, and thus, to further characterize the underlying mechanism by which EPS8 promotes tumor growth, western blotting was used to identify altered pathways in cells treated with the specific PI3K/Akt inhibitor perifosine [22] (Additional file 2: Figure S2A) and in cells with EPS8 silenced by shRNA (Fig. 2d and Additional file 2: Figure S2D).