Figure 1.

Resume of some of the metabolic changes taking place in tumor cells. During tumor development, a series of metabolic changes that favor its growth occurs. Globally, proliferating tumor cells have a great appetite for glucose and amino acids, causing a relative deficit of both in the tumor interstitium. In addition, pyruvate enters the tricarboxylic acid cycle with difficulty and is mainly transformed into lactate (Warburg effect). However, having an ATP production more based on glycolysis or OXPHOS depends on tumor type, grade, and even the stage of progression of the disease. In fact, both energy-gathering systems can coexist in tumor cells, and even cancer cells can move from one energy-gathering system to another. Created using BioRender.