AKT1 and neoplasm: In order to investigate whether the absence of α3 promotes tumor progression and invasiveness through changes in the downstream signaling of HER2, we have analyzed the primary tumors and metastases for the activation of protein kinase B (pAkt), the mitogen-activated protein kinase 1 and 2 (pErk1/2), and eukaryotic translation initiation factor 4E-binding protein 1 (p4E-BP1), a downstream target of mTOR signaling pathway [5].