Energy metabolism ; Head and neck neoplasms ; Lipid metabolism ; Neoplasm invasiveness ; Neoplasm metastasis.
Abstract
Reprogramming of cellular metabolism is an important, emerging, and universal hallmark of
cancer which has received considerable attention during the recent era of cancer research.
Cancer cells show characteristic alterations in glucose metabolism in order to fulfill the needs
of biosynthesis for tumor proliferation and growth. However, under certain circumstances
such as invasion and metastasis, cancer cells are prone to metabolic stress and will require
different strategies to meet the high energetic demand from cancer progression. From various
metabolic rewiring mechanisms, cancer cells adopt other metabolic pathways with alternative
nutrient sources. Therefore, targeting cancer metabolism holds promising but great challenge
caused by the metabolic plasticity of cancer cells. This review will discuss characteristic can cer metabolism in detail with special focus on lipid metabolism which is gathering increasing ly keen interest, in order to find novel therapeutic approaches to head and neck cancer. By un derstanding and exploiting the synthesis, oxidation, and storage of fatty acids, we could
investigate potential strategies to block cancer proliferation and progression.