the present invention provides a method of treating cancer with coadministration of akt inhibitor and a traditional anticancer drug . in particular , the invention provides for using an effective amount of triciribine ( tcn ), also known as akt / pkb inhibitor - 2 ( api - 2 ), or triciribine phosphate ( tcnp ) with an effective amount of an anticancer drug , such as cisplatin , taxane , farnesyltransferase inhibitor , geranylgeranyltransferase inhibitor , rapamycin , rad001 , u0126 , herceptin , or erbitux . a therapeutically effective amount is defined as a quantity of compound sufficient to yield a desired therapeutic response . akt has been shown to up - regulate , sometimes drastically , in tumor masses during chemotherapeutic or radiotherapeutic treatment . the tumor masses become highly resistant to further treatment , producing the belief that akt is involved in tumor chemoresistance and radioresistance . to determine the effect of treating tumor cells with anti - neoplastic agent and akt inhibitor , p53 wild - type ( a2780s , ov2008 , c - 13 , a549 , mcf - 7 ) and p53 null ( a2780cp , mda - mb - 435 , ovcar - 3 , du - 145 , u266 , hl60 , skbr3 ) cell lines were treated with varying anti - neoplastic agents alone or in combination with akt inhibitors tcn , tcn - p , and api - 2 . to confirm tumor cell reliance on akt in overcoming chemotherapy and radiotherapy , p53 wild - type ( a2780s , ov2008 , c - 13 ) and p53 null ( a2780cp ) cell lines were treated with cis - diammine - dichloroplatinum ii ( cddp ), as chemotherapy has been shown to activate an akt - dependent survival pathway . after cddp treatment , c - 13 and a2780cp exhibited higher survivability than a2780s and ov2008 , as shown in fig1 a through 1c . results of western blot for phosphorylated akt ( p - akt ) indicate c - 13 and a2780cp cells had high levels of p - akt . further , cell survivability after chemotherapy appears directly connected to akt up - regulation as c - 13 had both the highest p - akt and survivability . further , as shown in fig2 a and 2b , cells were treated with a mammalian target of rapamycin ( mtor ) inhibitor . this caused an increase in p - akt within 1 hour of treatment , confirming a relationship between p - akt and cell survival after chemotherapy . the effect of akt inhibition on chemotherapeutic cancer treatment was determined through analyzing p53 wild - type a - 549 cells treated with 9 different anti - neoplastic agents at varying concentrations . cell proliferation data was collected and compared to concentration levels of anti - neoplastic agent . the cells were treated with transferase inhibitor agents with or without tcn , seen in fig3 through 5 . the addition of tcn has an additive or synergistic effect , with higher tcn concentrations further increasing the inhibitory effectiveness . cells were treated with a proteasome inhibitor , shown in fig6 to 8 . tcn increases the inhibitory effect , however higher levels of tcn have less clear cut results . the cells were then treated with anti - signaling agents alone or in combination with tcn or tcn - p , shown in fig9 to 11 , with similar results . ovcar - 3 , mcf - 7 , and du - 146 cells were treated with mtor inhibitors , rapamycin or rad001 , alone or in combination with tcn . cell lysates were taken and probed for p - akt , phosphorylated rapamycin target serine / threonine kinase p70s6k , and actin . mtor inhibitor treatment activates akt and eliminates phosphorylated p70s6k , as seen in fig1 a and 12b . however , the addition of tcn prevents activation of akt and inhibits the growth of cancer cells , even beyond mtor inhibition treatment alone , shown in fig1 a through 14 . api - 2 was further investigated to determine whether it can overcome cddp resistance by blocking akt signaling pathways . a2780cp and c - 13 cells were treated with increasing amounts of cddp alone or in combination with 10 μm api - 2 . as illustrated in fig1 , cddp alone has no significant effect on cell survival in either cell line . however , cells treated with api - 2 and cddp underwent significant cell death , even at 5 - 10 μm doses . c - 13 cells were treated with varying amounts of api - 2 alone or in combination with 10 μm cddp to determine the effective dosage amounts of tcn and cddp . 24 hr after treatment , c - 13 cell survival was analyzed , with the results illustrating a synergistic or strong cumulative effect with cddp and low doses of api - 2 , shown in fig1 . the c - 13 combination treatment results were confirmed in a2780s and ov2008 cells , as seen in fig1 a and 17b . the combination treatment decreased the survivability of a2780s and ov2008 cells compared to cddp treatment alone , as shown in fig1 a and 18b . the effectiveness of tcn combination treatments was determined by treating a2780cp and c - 13 cells with tcn , taxol , or a combination of the two drugs . apoptosis was determined using capase - glo 3 / 7 . treatment with taxol or tcn individually increased apoptosis slightly . however , the combination of both drugs significantly increased apoptosis , seen in fig1 , indicating a highly synergistic combination treatment between tcn and taxol . the results indicate an additive effect in in vitro systems . to determine the effectiveness of the combination treatment in vivo , c - 13 cddp - resistant cells were injected subcutaneously into nude mice . 7 days following the injection , the mice were treated with cddp , api - 2 , or a combination of cddp and api - 2 once a day . tumor growth curves were calculated at day 7 , 14 , 21 , and 28 . after tumor growth was calculated , the mice were sacrificed and tumor size was determined . api - 2 effectively reduced both tumor growth and tumor size , but was less effective than the combinatory cddp / api - 2 treatment , as seen in fig2 a and b . to confirm these results , erbb2 breast cancer was induced in transgenic mice . 17 days later , the mice were treated with tcnp and gfb - 204 , a vegfr and pdgfr tyrosine phosphorylation inhibitor . as seen in fig2 , tumor volume decreased rapidly after treatment . the results were replicated using tcnp and ggti - 2418 , a geranylgeranyltransferase inhibitor . as with the previous treatment , tcnp and ggti - 2418 resulted in a significant reduction in cancer volume , seen in fig2 . the effect of tcn with protein knockdown technology was analyzed in breast cancer cell lines . cells were transfected with sirna stat3 and tcn was added to the cell media for 72 hr . in fig2 , cell lysates were collected and probed for pakt , akt 1 / 2 , pstat3 , and stat3 . at lower concentrations , the combination treatment removed phosphorylated akt . however , sirna stat3 with higher tcn concentrations , at 50 μm , akt 1 / 2 was also not detected , seen in the far right panel of fig2 . the cells were also collected to determine proliferation , apoptosis , and cell death , shown in fig2 . additionally , the cells were stained and analyzed with flow cytometry to determine the cell cycle status of the cells . fig2 shows a strong increase in apoptotic cells with a combination treatment of stat3 sirna and tcn , compared to tcn alone , confirming the synergistic effect of stat3 sirna and tcn . p53 has been shown to exert tumor suppression by regulating apoptosis , mainly through up - regulation of pro - apoptotic proteins and down - regulation of anti - apoptotic proteins . it has been shown that p53 up - regulates pten while reducing pik3ca expression , leading to inhibition of the akt pathway . further , p53 is phosphorylated , and therefore inhibited , by aurora - a . to test whether akt could be activated by aurora - a to mediate a survival signal , cells were transfected with and without aurora - a . protein extracts were analyzed , and indicate aurora - a activation depends on p53 , seen in fig2 a though 27 b . akt1 and akt2 immmunoprecipitates show akt1 and akt2 kinase activity and phosphor - s473 - akt were induced by aurora - a in a dose dependent manner , whereas total akt levels were unaffected by aurora - a . suppression of aurora - a through rnai decreased phosphorylation levels of akt in transfected cells . also , the addition of akt inhibitor api - 2 abrogated akt induction by aurora - a in a2780s and a2780cp cells regardless of whether the cells were transfected with aurora - a . the effects of ovarian tumor response were then evaluated with ha - tagged aurora - a transfected cells , with wild - type or mutant p 53 . after expression of ha tagged aurora - a was confirmed by immunoblot , transfected cells were treated with 10 μm cddp , 100 nm taxol , 5 μm vp16 , or 2 μm doxorubicin . mtt analyses at differing times indicate overexpression of aurora - a significantly reduces cddp , vp - 16 , and taxol sensitivity , but has little effect on doxorubicin . however , ectopic expression of aurora - a has no significant effect on survival of a2780cp cells , seen in fig2 a to 31 , implying aurora - a - induced chemoresistance associates with p53 status . to determine the applicability of the findings to other cells , ov22008 cells with wild - type p53 were transfected with aurora - a . upon introduction of aurora - a , the cells were exposed to cddp and exhibited reduced cell death , indicating aurora - a induced cddp resistance . to determine the pathway in which aurora - a induces cddp resistance , cells were transfected with adenovirus . 48 hours later , the cells were treated with cddp and cell survival was assayed at various times . reintroduction of p53 restored cddp sensitivity in non - aurora - a - transfected cells , shown in fig3 a to 34 indicating aurora - a protects cells from cddp - induced apoptosis through a p53 dependent manner . to further validate aurora - a &# 39 ; s involvement in cddp resistance , aurora - a was knocked down using rnai . knockdown of aurora - a enhances cddp - induced apoptosis and abrogates aurora - a - induced cddp resistance , shown in fig3 through 37b . a2780cp , a2780s , and ov2008 cells were transfected with aurora - a or pcdna3 vector and treated with api - 2 , cddp , ly294002 with cddp , or api - 2 with cddp . cell viability was calculated at varying time points , showing api - 2 alone considerably reduces cell survival in a2780s - aurora - a , ov2008 - aurora - a and a2780cp cells . seen in fig3 , combination treatment of api - 2 with cddp abrogates aurora - a - induced cddp resistance , and reverses phenotypic a2780cp cddp resistance . a2780s and a2780cp cell lysates were analyzed for pten to prove p53 is required for aurora - a - induced cddp resistance . aurora - a reduces pten expression in a2780s , but not a2780cp , cells , as seen in fig3 a to 43 . ha - tagged wild - type p53 restores pten expression in a2780cp - vector , but not a2780 - cp - aurora - a cells , showing p53 function is abrogated by aurora - a . further , ectopic expression of p53 stimulates pten promoter activity in a2780cp cells but fails to activate the promoter in aurora - a cells . moreover , since bax is a major target of p53 , and is vital in chemotherapeutic agent - induced apoptosis , cell lysates were analyzed for bax . following cddp treatment , cell lysates were immunoprecipitated and immunostained for anti - active bax antibody . the results show aurora - a reduces bax expression and conformational changes , and bax translocation into the mitochondria . the effectiveness of tcn with various chemotherapeutics was determined using lung cancer a - 549 cells . the cells were treated with varying concentrations of tcn at varying chemotherapeutic agent doses . 72 hr after treatment , cell proliferation and ic 50 drug effectiveness were analyzed . further cell lysates were probed for akt levels and phosphorylation . combination of tcn with farnesyltransferase inhibitor significantly improves treatment effectiveness , indicating a synergistic effect between tcn and farnesyltransferase inhibitors , as shown in fig4 a through 46b . further , phosphorylated akt is severely reduced at low doses of tcn , while total akt remains unaffected , shown in fig4 and 47 . the results were carried over to other cells lines to test the applicability of combination treatment and reduce cell - specific testing artifacts . synergistic effects are seen in breast cancer cells , fig4 a through 50b , multiple myeloma cells , fig5 a and 52b , and leukemia cells , fig5 a through 58b . protein lysates from leukemia cells were collected 24 hr after treatment , and indicate parp is activated at higher doses of tcn and farnesyltransferase inhibitor , tipifarnib , as shown in fig5 a and 59b . the effects of tcn combination treatment were then analyzed in breast cancer cells with 30 μm her2 inhibitor , herceptin . apoptosis and cell proliferation were assayed using trypan blue after 72 hr . as seen in fig6 and 61 , cell death increased slightly with increased tcn dosages . cell proliferation was drastically reduced at low tcn dosages , but further proliferative inhibition was limited . additionally , cell lysates were collected and western blotted for erb2 and p - akt , indicating erb2 and p - akt levels drop with increasing tcn . the disclosure of all publications cited above are expressly incorporated herein by reference , each in its entirety , to the same extent as if each were incorporated by reference individually . it is also to be understood that the following claims are intended to cover all of the generic and specific features of the invention herein described , and all statements of the scope of the invention which , as a matter of language , might be said to fall therebetween . now that the invention has been described ,