AKT1 and hepatocellular carcinoma: Recent studies have shown that overexpression of VEGFA activates a variety of oncogenic signaling pathways in HCC-derived cells such as PI3K/Akt, p38 MAPK, PKC, and ERK1/2 in an autocrine–paracrine manner, inducing cancer cell proliferation, metastasis, and vasculogenic mimicry (VM) [25–29].VM describes plasticity of aggressive cancer cells forming abnormal vessel networks by deformation and matrix remodeling [30, 31].