Metabolic fluxes in cancer metabolism

Since Otto Warburg’s work almost a century ago, we have known that cancer cells undergo a metabolic transformation that makes them convert the majority of their glucose carbon into lactate. In the past decade it has become clear that this metabolic signature of cancer cells is controlled by the activation of oncogenes and the loss of tumor suppressors, linking cancer metabolism to well-known signaling pathways. Although most of the research on metabolism in cancer cells has been focused on the regulation of metabolic enzymes, there is a growing body of work studying altered metabolic fluxes in malignant cells providing accurate information on biochemical pathways. From these discoveries arise new opportunities for drug discovery and for disease diagnostics in the context of patient stratification.