Cells adapt metabolism to meet distinct physiological needs. To proliferate, cancer cells must adapt metabolism to support anabolic processes and allow the accumulation of biomass while still generating sufficient ATP to maintain homeostasis.  However, tumor cells also experience periods of stress, and metabolic plasticity to shift metabolism toward efficient ATP production from available nutrients is also needed for tumor progression.  Cancer cells can catabolize a variety of nutrients, including extracellular protein, depending on their genetic and environmental context.  Regulation of key reactions in the metabolic network also impact the metabolic phenotype of tumor cells, and how available nutrients are metabolized impacts whether cells are able to proliferate.  These findings suggest a framework to consider how the regulation of metabolism is regulated to support tumor initiation, growth and progression.  Numerous challenges exist to understand how metabolism is regulated in different physiological contexts, and using animal models to study cell metabolism will be discussed, as will the impact of our findings on efforts to target metabolism for cancer therapy.

Challenges associated with targeting cancer metabolism

246th National Meeting (2013)

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