🇬🇧 How metabolism influences cancer progression

Abstract

Complex regulatory mechanisms enable cell metabolism to match physiological state. How specific cancers use metabolism to support proliferation is determined both by cell intrinsic factors (such as tissue of origin and driver mutations) and the nutrients available to cells within the tumor. Accumulating evidence suggests that nutrient availability in tissues is heavily influenced by tissue site and non-cancer cells in the tissue, such that tissue location is a major determinant of nutrient availability leading to each tissue having a unique nutrient environment. This has implications for understanding how cancer cells use nutrients to support proliferation and survival, and might limit both sites of metastasis and response to cancer therapy. Specifically, we find that to metastasize, cancer cells have to adapt to the nutrient conditions found within a particular organ, and that nutrient conditions can also impact gene expression in cells. These topics, and their implications for cancer biology will be discussed.