The Neglected Liaison: Targeting Cancer Cell Metabolic Reprogramming Modifies the Composition of Non-Malignant Populations of the Tumor Microenvironment

Abstract

Metabolic reprogramming is a well-known hallmark of cancer, whereby the development of drugs that target cancer cell metabolism is gaining momentum. However, when establishing preclinical studies and clinical trials, it is often neglected that a tumor mass is a complex system in which cancer cells coexist and interact with several types of microenvironment populations, including endothelial cells, fibroblasts and immune cells. We are just starting to understand how such populations are affected by the metabolic changes occurring in a transformed cell and little is known about the impact of metabolism-targeting drugs on the non-malignant tumor components. Here we provide a general overview of the links between cancer cell metabolism and tumor microenvironment (TME), particularly focusing on the emerging literature reporting TME-specific effects of metabolic therapies.

Keywords

• cancer metabolism
• tumor microenvironment
• metabolic reprogramming
• cancer-associated fibroblasts
• tumor-associated macrophages