[Metabolic reprogramming in cancer: the art of balance]

Despite seminal studies in the 1920s by Warburg showing a characteristic metabolic pattern for tumors, cancer bioenergetics has often been relegated to the backwaters of cancer biology. Recent studies have shown that metabolism in the tumor tissue is far more complicated than we previously knew. Despite vigorous glycolysis, in fact, the tumor tissue still retains mitochondrial aerobic metabolism. Mitochondria is one of the main sites of the biosynthesis process of tumor cells. Recent studies revealed that abnormal fatty acid metabolism. Amino acid metabolism plays a key role in the tumorigenesis. The metabolic network in tumor cells was reprogrammed, leading to nutrition flux reorganization and re-direction. Metabolism reprogramming in tumor cells facilitates the balance between the needs of energy supply and the synthesis of biological macromolecules. Targeting cell metabolism is not intended to interfere the energy supply of tumor cells but to affect the synthesis of metabolic rate, thereby inhibiting the proliferation of the tumor. The review focuses on the importance of metabolic reprogramming in tumor development and cancer therapy. We summarize what is currently known about metabolic reprogramming and establish a framework to understanding its contribution to the altered metabolism of cancer cells.