The phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K)/protein kinase B (PKB, also known as AKT) signaling pathway plays a crucial role in the development of lung cancer by promoting cell survival, tumorigenesis and treatment resistance (Yu and Cui, 2016; Hoxhaj and Manning, 2020; Yang et al., 2019). The gene discussed is AKT1; the disease is lung carcinoma.