Metabolic Interactions in the Tumor Microenvironment

Overview

Journal Trends Cell Biol

Specialty Cell Biology

Date 2017 Jul 24

PMID 28734735

Citations 413

Authors

Costas A Lyssiotis

Alec C Kimmelman

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Tumors are dynamic pseudoorgans that contain numerous cell types interacting to create a unique physiology. Within this network, the malignant cells encounter many challenges and rewire their metabolic properties accordingly. Such changes can be experienced and executed autonomously or through interaction with other cells in the tumor. The focus of this review is on the remodeling of the tumor microenvironment that leads to pathophysiologic interactions that are influenced and shaped by metabolism. They include symbiotic nutrient sharing, nutrient competition, and the role of metabolites as signaling molecules. Examples of such processes abound in normal organismal physiology, and such heterocellular metabolic interactions are repurposed to support tumor metabolism and growth. The importance and ubiquity of these processes are just beginning to be realized, and insights into their role in tumor development and progression are being used to design new drug targets and cancer therapies.

Citing Articles

Deciphering Colorectal Cancer-Hepatocyte Interactions: A Multiomics Platform for Interrogation of Metabolic Crosstalk in the Liver-Tumor Microenvironment.

Nelson A, Reese L, Rono E, Queathem E, Qiu Y, McCluskey B Int J Mol Sci. 2025; 26(5).

PMID: 40076609 PMC: 11900982. DOI: 10.3390/ijms26051976.

Intrinsic STING of CD8 + T cells regulates self-metabolic reprogramming and memory to exert anti-tumor effects.

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Lactate and lactylation in cancer.

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Impact of triglyceride-glucose index on the long-term prognosis of advanced gastric cancer patients receiving immunotherapy combined with chemotherapy.

Yao Z, Ma X, Cui Y, Liu J, Han Z, Song J World J Gastroenterol. 2025; 31(5):102249.

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Tumor-initiating and metastasis-initiating cells of clear-cell renal cell carcinoma.

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