AKT plays an important role in malignant behavior of tumors. The purpose of the present study was to determine the expression of phosphorylated AKT (P-AKT) and nuclear factor-kappaB (NF-kappaB) p65 and their association with clinicopathological parameters and prognosis in epithelial ovarian tumor. On immunohistochemistry 115 samples of ovarian tissue that included 68 specimens of epithelial ovarian cancer, 12 of borderline tumor, 24 of epithelial benign tumor and 11 of normal ovary, were evaluated. Sixty-three patients with ovarian cancer were followed up from 7 to 68 months. The positive expression rate of P-AKT and NF-kappaB p65 were higher in epithelial ovarian cancer than in normal ovarian tissue (P<0.01). Elevated P-AKT or NF-kappaB p65 expression was significantly correlated with late clinical stage (P<0.05 and P<0.01) and poor histological differentiation (both P<0.01). P-AKT expression was significantly correlated with NF-kappaB p65 immunostaining (phi=0.272, P<0.05). Elevated expression of P-AKT was negatively correlated with the survival of ovarian cancer patients, but it was not an independent prognostic factor after multivariate analysis. Overexpression of P-AKT and NF-kappaB p65 were involved in the carcinogenesis and metastasis of ovarian cancer. P-AKT might contribute to the malignant transformation through NF-kappaBp65 upregulation.