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1. Introduction
Cancer is defined by the American Cancer Society as a group of diseases characterized by the uncontrolled growth and spread of abnormal cells. The World Health Organization (WHO) states that one defining feature of cancer is the rapid creation of abnormal cells that grow beyond their usual boundaries, and which can then invade adjoining parts of the body and spread to other organs. This growth is caused by either external factors (tobacco, infectious organisms and an unhealthy diet), or by internal factors (inherited genetic mutations, hormones, and immune conditions) (www.cancer.org).
Cancer can have severe health consequences, and is a leading cause of mortality worlwide; there are 8.2 million cancer-related deaths, which corresponds to 13% of all deaths worldwide. Data from the Cancer Research UK indicated that in 2012, approximately 14.1 million new cases of cancer were diagnosed in worldwide. Among these cases, 7.4 million (53%) were diagnosed in males and 6.7 million (47%) in females, with a male-to-female ratio of 10:9. The world age-standardized incidence rate points out that there are 205 new cancer cases for every 100,000 males worldwide, and 165 for every 100,000 females (1).
According to WHO, lung, prostate, colorectal, stomach and liver cancer are the most common types of cancer in males, while breast, colorectal, lung, uterine cervix and stomach cancer are the most common among females. Statistics also indicate that there is expected to be a 70% increase in new cancer cases over the next two decades. The American Cancer Society released the analysis for 2015, projecting that there will be an estimated 1,658,370 new cancer cases diagnosed and 589,430 cancer-related deaths in the US (2).
Presently, there are over 100 types of cancer, which require a great effort for diagnosis and treatment; due to this high incidence and high risk for public health, intense research designed into this topic is being carried out worldwide.
Over the past decades, a growing body of evidence has indicated that cancer patients can be cured by novel molecular target therapies due to the molecular characterization of the tumor from each patient. The phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)/Akt pathway is aberrantly activated in several types of cancers and targeting this pathway with drug inhibitors may result in more effective anticancer treatment for both solid...