Normal aerobic cellular respiration produces only energy, in the form of ATP, plus water and carbon dioxide, which aren’t much use as building materials (also, we exhale the latter two). The Warburg effect, also known as anaerobic glycolysis, turns the same amount of glucose into a little bit of energy and a whole lot of chemical building blocks—which are then used to build new cells rapidly. Thus, the Warburg effect is how cancer cells fuel their own proliferation. But it also represents a potential vulnerability in cancer’s armor.
