Deregulating Cellular Metabolism

In order for tumor cells to proliferate unrestricted, they need sufficient energy and building blocks to do so. Therefore, tumor cells undergo a complex rearrangement of metabolism, namely, metabolic pathways involved in energy production and biosynthetic processes involved in the formation of cell building components. Although several findings suggest that metabolic rewiring results from the regulatory influence of oncogenes and tumor-suppressor genes and is thus a consequence of processes associated with the transformation of normal cells into tumor cells, it appears that in some cases it is the altered metabolism that plays a primary role in oncogenesis (Hirschey et al. 2015).