Topic overview

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Cancer cells can favor aerobic glycolysis, converting glucose to lactate despite oxygen availability. This increases lactate production, reduces oxidative phosphorylation, and provides intermediates for biosynthesis; lactate can also acidify the tumor microenvironment. Other adaptations include increased glucose uptake, glutamine use, lipid and nucleotide synthesis, and pentose phosphate pathway activity. The topic also connects metabolic signaling with protein translation and cell growth, and surveys changes in telomerase, tumor-suppressor function, apoptosis, oxidative stress responses, angiogenesis, and immune evasion. Further changes—including extracellular matrix degradation, genomic instability, and epigenetic reprogramming—help explain how tumor cells may invade, adapt, and resist treatment. Together, these features show how biochemical reprogramming supports multiple aspects of malignancy.