Mouse research shows that cancer tumor cells die

Like all living things, cancer cells need to eat, and scientists have long tried to figure out how to starve tumors. Much of that effort has focused on suppressing the cells’ ability to digest glucose, a simple sugar that is thought to be the main food source for cancer.

The glucose pathway has not been effective, says William Lowry, a biologist at the University of California, Los Angeles.

He has an idea why. A new study in which Lowry and his team published Scientific progress on Friday suggests that cancer cells readily consume multiple food sources, and their ability to metabolize at least two of these nutrients must be blocked to have an effect. That work, done in mice, could help scientists find a new way to treat cancer by targeting its metabolism.