this work is supported by the national cancer institute ( r01ca121118 ) and the melanoma research alliance .
abstractdysregulated 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 .