AKT1 and small cell lung carcinoma: Upregulation of the Ras family is common in cancers, such as small-cell lung cancer.40 Ras family proteins are upstream of two major intracellular signaling pathways, mitogen-activated Erk kinase (MEK)/extracellular signal-regulated kinase (Erk) and phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K)/protein kinase B (PKB).