Figure 4.

Utility of the altered oxygen metabolism of cancer cells to selectively kill them. Cancer cells and normal cells metabolize oxygen differently. Because the basal levels of H₂O₂ are higher in cancer cells than in normal cells, a specific increase in the concentrations of H₂O₂ may lead to cytotoxic concentrations in cancer cells but not in normal cells. In addition, because the activation of glycolysis in cancer cells is essential to prevent cell death induced by ATP depletion and H₂O₂ accumulation, the attenuation of glycolysis in cancer cells can induce their death. Normal cells would be less affected by this strategy, because they do not need to have increased glycolytic rates to ensure their survival. See text for further details. Dotted lines indicate that the pathway or process is repressed. Bolded lines indicate that the process is activated or that the levels of the molecule are increased.