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Review
. 2024 Jan;6(1):18-38.
doi: 10.1038/s42255-023-00963-z. Epub 2024 Jan 24.

Metabolic heterogeneity in cancer

Margherita Demicco #  1   2 , Xiao-Zheng Liu #  1   2 , Katharina Leithner  3   4 , Sarah-Maria Fendt  5   6
Affiliations
Review

Metabolic heterogeneity in cancer

Margherita Demicco et al. Nat Metab. 2024 Jan.

Abstract

Cancer cells rewire their metabolism to survive during cancer progression. In this context, tumour metabolic heterogeneity arises and develops in response to diverse environmental factors. This metabolic heterogeneity contributes to cancer aggressiveness and impacts therapeutic opportunities. In recent years, technical advances allowed direct characterisation of metabolic heterogeneity in tumours. In addition to the metabolic heterogeneity observed in primary tumours, metabolic heterogeneity temporally evolves along with tumour progression. In this Review, we summarize the mechanisms of environment-induced metabolic heterogeneity. In addition, we discuss how cancer metabolism and the key metabolites and enzymes temporally and functionally evolve during the metastatic cascade and treatment.

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