Metabolic Flexibility in Cancer: How Tumor Cells Adapt Their Metabolism to Growth and Spread
A special issue of Cells (ISSN 2073-4409).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 25 January 2026 | Viewed by 21
Special Issue Editor
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The ability of tumor cells to promptly shift between different metabolic states is emerging as a key hallmark of cancer, facilitating uncontrolled growth and metastatic spread. Since Otto Warburg’s early observations of metabolic reprogramming, our understanding of tumor metabolism has advanced significantly, providing insights into a complex form of regulation that acts at multiple levels.
Tumor cells exhibit remarkable metabolic flexibility, allowing them to adapt to the various stresses encountered during tumor progression and metastasis. This plasticity enables cancer cells to thrive in diverse microenvironments, from the primary tumor to metastatic sites, by dynamically adjusting their metabolic networks in response to fluctuating conditions such as hypoxia, nutrient deprivation, and immune or therapeutic pressures.
In addition to providing energy and biosynthetic building blocks, metabolic alterations in tumors can profoundly regulate transcriptional programs and activate signaling pathways that promote the growth, survival, resistance to therapy, and metastases of tumors. Additionally, the altered metabolite landscape of tumors influences the behavior of neighboring non-transformed cells and impacts the broader metabolic status of the entire organism.
This Special Issue presents the latest advances regarding the metabolism of tumors, offering new insights into the novel experimental technologies and therapeutic/dietary strategies that target metabolic vulnerabilities in cancer.
We welcome the submission of original research articles, perspectives, and review papers
Dr. Erica Pranzini
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- cancer metabolism
- metabolic plasticity
- tumor microenvironment
- oncometabolites
- targeting cancer metabolism
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