Lipid metabolism in metastasis and therapy

Abstract (100-120 words) Alterations in lipid metabolism are being increasingly implicated in the initiation, aggressiveness, and progression to metastasis of cancers. Recent advances have shown that high levels of fat availability and altered lipid metabolism can promote the metastatic process by: i) providing energy for cancer cells, thereby supporting invasion and colonization; ii) promoting their survival by enhancing anti-oxidative, anti-apoptotic mechanisms and therapy resistance; and iii) inhibiting the immune surveillance from detecting/removing tumor cells. These findings are especially disturbing given the alarmingly high fat intake within our modern diet. However, the reprogramming of fat metabolism exhibited by cancer cells and intratumor immune cells promises to generate new pharmacological opportunities to treat metastasis.