“As this field advances, metabolomics will take its well-deserved place next to genomics, transcriptomics, and proteomics in both clinical and basic research in oncology.”
New Opportunities from the Cancer Metabolome
OA Aboud, et al.,Clinical Chemistry, 2013
Altered cellular metabolism – common to all cancers
Are all cancers the same, with differences only due to location and function of tissue effected? Is cancer a disease defined by an altered, diseased cellular environment and not due to an mutated cell DNA? In other words, is DNA mutation and the resulting behavior of the cell simply a consequence of its environment and completely random? All cancers exhibit a key characteristic, their nutritional metabolism has been fundamentally altered. This change allows the cell to survive in a stressful environment, to proliferate, to become cancer… regardless of its specific genetic identity.
The altered metabolism allows the cell to survive in oxygen-starved environments. This new, disease metabolism is termed aerobic glycolysis or described as the Warburg Effect. An additional result of the disease metabolism is the production of lactate which is secreted to the cell surface. This process is one of several steps that creates a unique cellular disease microenvironment.