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Scientists discovered a key part of chemistry which makes cancer cells so dangerous.
They think that now might be possible to interfere in the mechanism of the cell and halting tumor growth.
The Harvard School of Medicine identified an enzyme which enables cancer cells to consume huge amounts of glucose, which need to grow uncontrollably.
In the journal Nature, scientists at Harvard described how cancer cells slow down their growth when they are deprived of the enzyme.
This enzyme, pyruvate kinase, is one of two ways, but the Harvard team found only one-the-PKM2 enables cancer cells to consume glucose at an accelerated rate.
When the researchers forced cancer cells to switch to another form of pyruvate cinaza, PKM2
curtailing production, growth stopped.
Then, when the cells were injected into mice, their ability to produce tumors had decreased considerably.
Nobel Prize
The first discovery that cancer cells can consume glucose faster than normal cells did the German Nobel laureate Otto Warburg 75 years ago.
Do not know yet whether these findings can be applied in humans outside the laboratory
Joanna Peak, of Cancer Research
Warburg also showed that the amount of glucose needed is minimal, allowing them to grow and divide at a prodigious speed, often compared to that of fetal cells.
However, the chemistry behind the "Warburg Effect" has not been well understood until now.
The researchers said the exact chemistry behind glucose metabolism probably varies depending on the type of cancer.
The lead researcher Professor Lewis Cantley said: "For PKM2 is found in all cancer cells we have examined, because it is not in most normal adult cells and because it is crucial for tumor formation, this form of pyruvate kinase is a possible target for cancer treatment. "
For his part, Dr Joanna Peak, of Cancer Research UK, said: "I do not know yet whether these findings can be applied in humans outside the laboratory, so more research is needed before considering the development of treatments against cancer using this process. "
However, Peak said it is testing a drug called DCA, which is believed to act effectively in this regard.
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