AKT1 and lung cancer: AKT, a serine/threonine protein kinase, is an important downstream effector of PI3K signaling, and elevated expression of activated AKT (p-AKT) has been confirmed to be present in many human cancers, such as breast cancer 25, esophageal cancer 26, pancreatic cancer 27, lung cancer 28, etc. AKT as the core to the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway, can phosphorylate some key premalignant factors to promote cell viability and inhibit apoptosis.