Research reveals how cancers shift between sugar, ketones, and amino acids, leading to treatments targeting all metabolic pathways.
The very trait that makes your metabolism healthy can make cancer deadly.
Metabolic flexibility—the cells’ ability to switch efficiently between fuel sources such as glucose and fat—is usually a hallmark of good health. However, when cancer cells gain the same adaptability, it becomes their survival advantage, enabling tumors to evade treatment and resist even the most targeted therapies.
This paradox is forcing researchers to rethink decades of cancer treatment strategies and develop new approaches that simultaneously attack tumors on multiple metabolic fronts.
Cancer’s Multiple Fuel Sources
For nearly a century, our understanding of cancer metabolism was shaped by German biochemist Otto Warburg, who observed that cancer cells consume large amounts of glucose even when oxygen is abundant. The “Warburg effect“ led scientists to believe that tumors relied almost exclusively on sugar for fuel, inspiring metabolic therapies aimed at starving cancer by cutting off its glucose supply.
However, Warburg’s model no longer reflects the full story.
“When a treatment blocks one fuel line, like a drug that targets glucose, the cancer cells simply switch to glutamine or fats to stay alive,” Michael Enwere, a cancer scientist and integrative oncology researcher specializing in metabolic interventions, told The Epoch Times. “It’s like a survivalist who, when you cut off their food supply, starts efficiently hunting and foraging to avoid starvation.”
Newer research shows that many cancers are far more adaptable than once thought. Instead of relying on a single energy source, malignant tumors exploit whatever fuel is available to sustain their growth. When glucose is scarce, they may increase glutamine (an essential amino acid) metabolism or tap into fatty acids. Some even metabolize ketones, the fuel the body produces during fasting or ketogenic diets. This metabolic flexibility helps explain why interventions like strict carbohydrate restriction or ketogenic diets sometimes show early promise but don’t necessarily produce lasting results.
A study published in the Journal of Experimental & Clinical Cancer Research found that glutamine metabolism helps cancer grow and evade the immune system. While drugs can block the pathway, cancer often finds alternatives.
