Intermediary metabolism of fast-growth tumor cells

Tumor cells show several modifications in their metabolism in comparison with normal cells. In particular, tumor cells show an accelerated glycolysis and a low O2 dependence, which are metabolic modifications involved in the resistance of many tumor cell lines to radiation. Thus, a strategy to enhance the radiosensitivity could be the transformation of the glycolytic metabolism of tumor cells into an oxidative type of metabolism, i.e., to induce the ATP supply to depend solely on oxidative phosphorylation. Therefore, this review emphasizes the relevance of oxidative phosphorylation on tumor cells regarding (a) its contribution to ATP supply for cell duplication during the proliferative phase, and (b) the possible therapeutic implications of having oxidative rather than glycolytic tumor cells.