Examining metabolic therapy for brain cancer
Metabolic oncology is a relatively new area of cancer research and has the potential to offer new insights into cancer cells’ molecular flexibility, new biomarkers and even targeted therapies. “Metabolism” in this context refers to the metabolic activity inside cancer cells, not the rate at which the body processes energy from food.
Cancer cells are hungry. To feed their rapid growth and division, their metabolism changes. Moreover, they use sugar (glucose) in a different way to normal cells.
The animation below, created by Nature Reviews Drug Discovery, explores the key aspects of the altered metabolism in cancer cells and explains how these can be exploited for the development of new anticancer strategies.