Cornell just finished a “trailblazing” study on the Warburg effect a few weeks ago:
Cancer’s metabolism subject of trailblazing study | Cornell Chronicle
Link to study, published December 7: Multi-scale computational study of the Warburg effect, reverse Warburg effect and glutamine addiction in solid tumors
I don’t quite understand what conclusions they drew, other than I think glutamine addiction not being relevant to cancer metabolism. I believe they’re in the camp that advocates for starving the body of glucose in order to starve the cancer.
They basically confirmed the primary role of the Warburg "effect" in cancer - i.e. in line with the study in the original post above they found that the Warburg "effect" in fact causes cancer cells to grow. It is kind of sad they call this "trailblazing" since the role of lactate as the most potent endogenous VEGF promoter has been known for decades. That why VEGF blocking drugs are one of the main therapies for cancer.
"...Using the results of FBA in models of populations of cells in the form of solid tumors, the group confirmed that the Warburg effect provides a growth advantage for the tumor, but that glutamine addiction does not benefit tumor cells’ growth. “We show that it’s not helpful [for the tumor] to be glutamine-addicted,” Stroock said. “The community will have to find other ways in which glutamine is important.” Stroock’s team also offered insights into the relationship between healthy cells and tumor cells under the reverse Warburg effect, which allows more oxygen to penetrate the cancerous mass in resource-limited microenvironments. Stroock said the group’s work, while opening doors to future study, also confirms a nearly 100-year-old theory. “It puts this ancient hypothesis on more solid footing,” he said, “and we now know more quantitatively … how cancer cells use this Warburg mechanism.”