This review summarizes the current state of knowledge about the metabolism of cancer cells, especially with respect to the "Warburg" and "Crabtree" effects. This work also summarizes two key discoveries, one of which relates to hexokinase-2 (HK2), a major player in both the "Warburg effect" and cancer cell immortalization. The second discovery relates to the finding that cancer cells, unlike no...

Metabolic reprogramming, a prominent phenotype in cancer cells, is the adaptation to shifts in the usage of metabolites, including glucose, fatty acids, amino acids, and glutamine. The central feature of this adaptation lies in the fact that cancer cells undergo glycolysis even in the presence of ample oxygen, contrary to normal cells. This aerobic glycolysis, termed “the Warburg effect,” has b...

More than 80 years ago, the renowned biochemist Otto Warburg described how cancer cells avidly consume glucose and produce lactic acid under aerobic conditions. Recent studies arguing that cancer cells benefit from this phenomenon, termed the Warburg effect, have renewed discussions about its exact role as cause, correlate, or facilitator of cancer. Molecular advances in this area may reveal ta...

Influential research by Warburg and Cori in the 1920s ignited interest in how cancer cells' energy generation is different from that of normal cells. They observed high glucose consumption and large amounts of lactate excretion from cancer cells compared with normal cells, which oxidised glucose using mitochondria. It was therefore assumed that cancer cells were generating energy using glycolys...

Department of Chemistry, University of Pennsylvania, USA Department of Physiology and Integrated Biosystems, College of Medicine, Inje University, Busan, Korea Systems Immunology Laboratory, WPI Immunology Frontier Research Center, Osaka University, Osaka, Japan Department of Internal Medicine, College of Medicine, Inje University and Busan Paik Hospital Organ Transplantation Center, Busan, Kor...