Manipulation of glycolysis in malignant tumors: fantasy or therapy?

After Warburg stated his hypothesis on tumor cell metabolism about 80 years ago, the field of carbohydrate metabolism of cancer cells and solid tumors is experiencing a boom for the past few years. Numerous studies have been focused on the characteristics of cancer metabolism and its accessibility to novel therapeutic interventions. Malignant transformation is associated with an increase in glycolytic flux, mainly caused by an upregulation of numerous glycolysis-related genes in the majority of human cancers. As a consequence of these alterations, tumor cells are producing lactate at higher levels compared to non-malignant tissue, even in the presence of oxygen, a phenomenon termed “aerobic…