AKT1 and thymoma: The 1987 paper by Dr. Stephen P. Staal of the Johns Hopkins Oncology Centre, on “Molecular cloning of the akt oncogene and its human homologues AKT1 and AKT2: Amplification of AKTI in a primary human gastric adenocarcinoma” (2), mentioned “the isolation of a directly transforming retrovirus, AKT8 from a spontaneous thymoma of an AKR mouse.” Going back 10 years, it is further mentioned that the initial isolate of the virus strain T-8 was from “an in vitro thymoma cell line, AKT-8, from a spontaneously lymphomatous AKR/J mouse” (3).