Causes and consequences of hypoxia and acidity in tumour microenvironments
Causes and consequences of hypoxia and
acidity in tumour microenvironments
J.R. Griffiths
The first major discovery about the physiology and biochem-
istry of tumoursÐby Otto Warburg in the early 1920sÐwas the
unusual amount of acid that they produced. Even in the
presence of oxygen, solid cancers preferentially obtain their
energy by converting glucose to lactic acid, by glycolysis.
Warburg came to believe that h
