Expert: Dana Krempels, Ph.D. - 4/23/2008

Question
My grandfather passed away from cancer. We had learned about metabolic rates in our biochemistry class, and I compared it with the metabolic rate of cancer and found that cancer has a rate of anaerobic metabolism that is higher than most body tissues. Could a drug target that? What metabolic process would that involve? Is there any testing that could be done to see what processes a drug targets in general? This question might be too broad, but if you could give any insight,even on theories that have not been proven  as correct yet, I would love to hear your thoughts.

Answer
Dear Brooke,

I am sorry about the loss of your grandfather.

The Holy Grail in the field of cancer medicine is to find something to target in cancer cells that will not harm healthy cells.  Since all cells undergo both aerobic and anaerobic metabolism with essentially the same enzymes (as far as we know), it might not be feasible to target metabolic processes in an effort to kill cancer cells.

Another challenge is that different cancers have different properties of metabolism.  Tumors rapidly vascularize, providing themselves with a good nutrient supply.  Because of this, scientists have developed drugs that prevent the growth of blood vessels, thus starving a tumor and killing it without harming surrounding tissues.  This has shown great promise, but not all cancers can be treated this way because not all cancers cause hypervascularization.

In short, you have a good idea by noticing a major difference between a cancer cell and a healthy cell.  But only further research will reveal whether that difference is significant enough (and a different in *kind* rather than *degree*) to be explored as a weapon against cancer.

I hope this helps.

Dana