Powering down cancer

The cancer metabolism field has been heating up over the last five years, and now is beginning to produce some of the first data for compounds aimed at stunting aerobic glycolysis, the energy-generating process that many tumor cells use to fuel their growth.

There are three cancer metabolism programs in the clinic, with more around the corner. The strategies companies are pursuing can broadly be placed into three buckets: preventing the production of cellular intermediates, limiting the energy available for DNA damage repair and using the byproducts of energy metabolism against the cancer cell...