We are approaching the 100th anniversary of Otto Warburg’s first description of the metabolic phenotype bearing his name—a propensity for tumours to metabolize glucose anaerobically rather than aerobically, even when oxygen is available. Generations of scientists have studied the Warburg effect, yet misconceptions persist about its causes and relationship to oxidative metabolism in the mitochondria. Here, we review the definition of the Warburg effect and discuss its place within a modern understanding of cancer biology.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals
Get Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription
$29.99 / 30 days
cancel any time
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 digital issues and online access to articles
$119.00 per year
only $9.92 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
References
Koppenol, W. H., Bounds, P. L. & Dang, C. V. Nat. Rev. Cancer 11, 325–337 (2011).
Lunt, S. Y. & Vander Heiden, M. G. Annu. Rev. Cell Dev. Biol. 27, 441–464 (2011).
Fantin, V. R., St-Pierre, J. & Leder, P. Cancer Cell 9, 425–434 (2006).
Patra, K. C. et al. Cancer Cell 24, 213–228 (2013).
Newsholme, E. A., Crabtree, B. & Ardawi, M. S. Biosci. Rep. 5, 393–400 (1985).
Chen, P. H. et al. Mol Cell 76, 838–851.e835 (2019).
Warburg, O. Science 123, 309–314 (1956).
Weinberg, F. et al. Proc Natl Acad. Sci. USA 107, 8788–8793 (2010).
Tan, A. S. et al. Cell Metab. 21, 81–94 (2015).
Ju, Y. S. et al. eLife 3, e02935 (2014).
Fan, T. W. et al. Mol. Cancer 8, 41 (2009).
Maher, E. A. et al. NMR Biomed. 25, 1234–1244 (2012).
Hensley, C. T. et al. Cell 164, 681–694 (2016).
Kernstine, K.H. et al. Ann. Thorac. Surg. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.athoracsur.2019.10.061 (2019).
Momcilovic, M. et al. Nature 575, 380–384 (2019).
Sena, L. A. et al. Immunity 38, 225–236 (2013).
Ansó, E. et al. Nat. Cell Biol. 19, 614–625 (2017).
Ma, E. H. et al. Immunity 51, 856–870.e855 (2019).
Linehan, W. M. et al. Cancer Discov. 9, 1006–1021 (2019).
Shim, E. H. et al. Cancer Discov. 4, 1290–1298 (2014).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding authors
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
R.J.D. is an advisor for Agios Pharmaceuticals. N.S.C. is an advisor for Rafael Pharmaceuticals.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
DeBerardinis, R.J., Chandel, N.S. We need to talk about the Warburg effect. Nat Metab 2, 127–129 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s42255-020-0172-2
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s42255-020-0172-2