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Bone cancer pain (BCP) is one of the most common and severe complications in patients suffering from primary bone cancer or metastatic bone cancer such as breast, prostate, or lung, which profoundly compromises their quality of life. Emerging lines of evidence indicate that central sensitization is required for the development and maintenance of BCP. However, the underlying mechanisms are largely unknown. In this study, we investigated the role of PI3Kc/Akt in the central sensitization in rats with tumor cell implantation in the tibia, a widely used model of BCP. Our results showed that PI3Kc and its downstream target pAkt were up-regulated in a timedependent manner and distributed predominately in the superficial layers of the spinal dorsal horn neurons, astrocytes and a minority of microglia, and were colocalized with nonpeptidergic, calcitonin gene-related peptide-peptidergic, and A-type neurons in dorsal root ganglion ipsilateral to tumor cell inoculation in rats. Inhibition of spinal PI3Kc suppressed BCPassociated behaviors and the up-regulation of pAkt in the spinal cord and dorsal root ganglion. This study suggests that PI3Kc/Akt signal pathway mediates BCP in rats.