Food supply: a sacrificial fibroblast (Image: Nancy Kedersha/Immunogen/SPL)
FOR 80 years we have misunderstood the feeding habits of cancer. It’s a controversial suggestion that, if correct, could open up a host of alternative ways to fight the killer disease, and may even mean that in some circumstances chemotherapy drugs promote tumour growth rather than inhibit it.
In the 1930s, Otto Warburg suggested that cancer cells produce the bulk of their energy by breaking down glucose in the absence of oxygen, a process called glycolysis. The Warburg effect, as it is called, is now widely accepted in cancer research. It…
