AKT1 and esophageal squamous cell carcinoma: Another study found that circRNA, circLPAR3, to be highly expressed in ESCC tissues, upregulated MET gene expression by sponging miR-198 and promoted the migration, invasion and metastasis of ESCC cells through the activation of RAS/MAPK and PI3K/Akt signaling pathways, thus showing its potential as a diagnostic target in ESCC (Shi et al., 2020).