After more than half of century sin

After more than half of century since the Warburg effect was described, this atypical metabolism has beenstanding true for almost every type of cancer, exhibiting higher glycolysis and lactate metabolism anddefective mitochondrial ATP production. This phenomenon had attracted many scientists to the problem ofelucidating the mechanism of, and reason for, this effect. Several models based on oncogenic studies havebeen proposed, such as the accumulation of mitochondrial gene mutations, the switch from oxidative phosphorylationrespiration to glycolysis, the enhancement of lactate metabolism, and the alteration of glycolyticgenes. Whether the Warburg phenomenon is the consequence of genetic dysregulation in cancer orthe cause of cancer remains unknown. Moreover, the exact reasons and physiological values of this peculiarmetabolism in cancer remain unclear. Although there are some pharmacological compounds, such as2-deoxy-D-glucose, dichloroacetic acid, and 3-bromopyruvate, therapeutic strategies, including diet, havebeen developed based on targeting the Warburg effect. In this review, we will revisit the Warburg effect todetermine how much scientists currently understand about this phenomenon and how we can treat the cancerbased on targeting metabolism.