Melanoma metastases caught in the AKT

Abstract

Dysregulated protein kinase B alpha (PKB/AKT1) signaling has been increasingly implicated in melanoma metastasis to distant organs, especially the brain. In a recent study, we expressed activated AKT1 in a non-metastatic melanoma model in vivo and discovered that AKT1 activation decreased tumor latency and elicited lung and brain metastases in this context.