Unbalanced autophagy could disturb various vital signaling pathways such as PI3K/AKT/mTOR [23–25], ERK/MAPK [26, 27] and the Wnt/β-catenin [28, 29] and therefore act as an accomplice of malignant hepatocyte to facilitate the HCC progression. This evidence concerns the gene AKT1 and hepatocellular carcinoma.