Killing Cancer

What makes cancer cells different - and how to kill them

Normal cells (blue) ind the middle of a benign growth are starved of oxygen but can survive by switching to glycolysis, a different way of making energy. In the process the mitochondria, which contain the cells' self-destruct mechanism, switch off. This makes the cells "immortal" and cancerous (red), so they carry on replicating and the tumour grows.

Glycolysis also generates lactic acid, which lets the cancer cells eat through tissue, escape and form secondary cancers elsewhere in the body.

A drug called dichloroacetate switches the mitochondria in the cancer cells back on (blue) so they halt glycolysis and start making energy in mitochondria again. The self-destruct mechanism is then activated, and the cells wither and die (brown).