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Background and objective AKT2 is a critical actor in the PI3K signal transduction pathway. Activation of AKT2 can lead to cell growth and survival. It has been revealed that AKT2 play a central role in tumorigenesis, tumor growth as well as metastasis. The aim of this study is to investigate the association between AKT2 and the clinical outcome of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients by detecting its expression levels in the tumor tissue samples. Methods We developed an immunohistochemistry (IHC) assay to measure AKT2 protein levels in lung specimens from 80 cases with NSCLC and 10 cases with benign pulmonary disease. Results The positive rate of AKT2 was 57.50% (46/80) in NSCLC, which was higher than that in benign pulmonary (10.0%) samples (χ2=8.038, P=0.006). There was no significant correlation between AKT2 expression and the clinicopathologic profiles. The expression of AKT2 was significantly correlated with the progression free survival (PFS) ( χ2=12.671, P=0.005) and the overall survival (OS) (χ2=9.851, P=0.021) of patients with NSCLC. Conclusion AKT2 may provide a prognostic bio-marker of NSCLC.

Background and objective Recently, Cyberknife is a new flame-less stereotactic radiation therapy technology, which has several advantages, such as large dose, high precision and minimizing exposure to the surrounding normal tissue or adjacent vital structures, so it is successful in the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The aim of this study is to determine the effectiveness and safety of robotic stereotactic radiotherapy-Cyberknife with image guidance and realtime respiratory tracking against clinical stage III-IV peripheral NSCLC. Methods A review of treatment details and outcomes for 31 patients, with 34 tumors with histologically proven cancers treated by Cyberknife at the CyberKnife Center of Nanjing general hospital of Nanjing military command between March 2009 and March 2010 is presented. Of the 31patients, 15 were adenocarcinoma and 12 were squamous cell cancer. Twenty-eight patients received other forms of antineoplastic therapy such as chemotherapy. A total dose of 36 Gy-60 Gy was prescribed to the 65%-85% isodose line and given in two to five fractions in less than 1 week using the CyberKnife radiosurgery system. CT scans were performed after one-two months, then patients were followed every 3 months. Results Two patients had complete radiographic responses, 16 patients showed PRs, 7 patients showed SDs. Two patients showed PRs (reduction in tumor size), but developed distant metastases. Response rate was 58% and disease control rate was 81%. All patients tolerated the radiosurgery well, fatigue being the main side effect. No grade 4 or above toxicity was encountered. Conclusion In this small cohort of patients with advanced peripheral NSCLC, Cyberknife seems to be a safe and has good therapeutic effects with slight adverse reaction, but long time follow-up is necessary to evaluate the survival data and late toxicity.