Skip to main content
. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2010 Feb 1.
Published in final edited form as: Semin Cancer Biol. 2008 Dec 3;19(1):17–24. doi: 10.1016/j.semcancer.2008.11.006

Fig. 3.

Fig. 3

Potent anticancer effect of 3-bromopyruvate. Notably, of all the anti-cancer agents noted in the legend to Fig. 2, 3-bromopyruvate has been the most effective in completely eradicating tumors in immuno-competent animals. Significantly, this tiny agent induces a rapid loss of cellular ATP in those tumors that exhibit a robust Warburg effect, and its mode of action extends beyond apoptotic effects per se and likely involves a combination of apoptotic and necrotic events. In the figure 3-bromopyruvate completely eradicates a large rat hepatocellular carcinoma {A} that projected on a human {B} would be the size of a large “grapefruit”. Complete eradication was obtained in 3 weeks with no recurrence {C}, the animal living out a normal life thereafter. Tumor histopathology of the untreated animal {D}. In the same study 18 other animals were freed of advanced cancer. All cancer free animals lived out a normal life without return of cancer (permission granted from Elsevier to reproduce Fig. 2 from Ref. [49]).