AKT1 and lung cancer: Furthermore, DACE, a novel semisynthetic derivative of cucurbitacin B by structure modification of the parental natural compound, exhibited potent inhibitory effects on cell proliferation and apoptosis induction against lung cancer A549 cells in vitro and markedly inhibited the growth of c-RAF-induced lung tumors by improving the solubility and bioavailability in vivo via targeting STAT3, AkT, and ERK signaling pathways (Silva et al., 2015).