Unravelling the connection between metabolism, cell growth and cancer

This paper presents a short review of the up-to-date literature on the connection between metabolism, cell growth and cancer. A major link is aerobic glycolysis, a phenomenon termed "the Warburg effect", and we describe its relationship with cellular redox balance that promotes faster proliferation of cancer cells and could lead to new therapeutic approaches. We analyse signals that accelerate cancer, namely insulin and insulin-like growth factor and we briefly describe signalling pathways related to growth factor receptors. We focus on the important part played by the PI3K/Akt signalling pathway and we discuss the major role played by PTEN and treatment approaches that might result. (C) 2015 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.