Figuring out how cancer grows

Researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School have shed new light on the fundamentals of how cancerous tumors grow.

Since the work of Otto Warburg 80 years ago, we have known that cancer cells use a different metabolic system than normal, healthy cells. The new research shows that the metabolic process (known as the Warburg effect) is essential for tumors’ rapid growth, and identifies the M2 form of pyruvate kinase (PKM2), an enzyme involved in sugar metabolism, as an important mechanism behind this process. This discovery could provide a target for the development of future cancer therapies.

The researchers found that when they forced cancerous cells to use pyruvate kinases other than PKM2, tumor growth became severely limited. When the treated cells were injected into mice, it was found that the mice were much less able to grow tumors.

Although the exact chemistry of metabolism is different in each type of cancerous cell, researchers are hopeful that this discovery may lead to a more universal treatment of cancer. “Because PKM2 is found in all of the cancer cells that we have examined, because it is not found in most normal adult tissues, and because it is critical for tumor formation, this form of pyruvate kinase is a possible target for cancer therapy” said Professor Lewis Cantley, lead researcher on the project.

Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center is a patient care, teaching and research affiliate of Harvard Medical School and consistently ranks in the top four in National Institutes of Health funding among independent hospitals nationwide. BIDMC is clinically affiliated with the Joslin Diabetes Center and is a research partner of the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center. BIDMC is the official hospital of the Boston Red Sox. For more information, visit www.bidmc.harvard.edu.

Harvard Medical School has more than 7,500 full-time faculty working in 11 academic departments located at the School’s Boston campus or in one of 47 hospital-based clinical departments at 17 Harvard-affiliated teaching hospitals and research institutes. Those affiliates include Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Cambridge Health Alliance, Children’s Hospital Boston, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Forsyth Institute, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, Joslin Diabetes Center, Judge Baker Children’s Center, Immune Disease Institute, Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, Massachusetts General Hospital, McLean Hospital, Mount Auburn Hospital, Schepens Eye Research Institute, Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, and VA Boston Healthcare System.

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