AKT1 and esophageal squamous cell carcinoma: Accordingly, the study published by Wang and colleagues revealed that overexpression of aurora A kinases (AURKA) in ESCC cell lines triggers a signaling pathway involving other kinases, such as p38 mitogen-activated protein kinases (p38) and protein kinase B (Akt), that culminates in MMP-2 expression and activity augmentation and, consequently, enhancement of ESCC cells’ invasion abilities [80].