# Warburg effect

Source: https://onco.cc/terms/warburg-effect/  
OnCo record `warburg-effect` (Term). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

Cancer cells burn glucose into lactate even when oxygen is plentiful, an inefficient but fast way to make building blocks. Otto Warburg described it in the 1920s.

## Summary

The Warburg effect is the tendency of cancer cells to burn glucose into lactate even when oxygen is plentiful, an inefficient but fast way to make building blocks, first described by Otto Warburg in the 1920s. This aerobic glycolysis is driven by oncogenic signalling and HIF, as set out in the Cancer metabolism and VHL / HIF oxygen sensing pathways; it supplies intermediates for nucleotide, lipid and amino-acid synthesis and acidifies the microenvironment. It is the basis of FDG PET imaging and of the Standardised uptake value (SUV) used to report it. Readers meet the term in the hallmark Reprogramming cellular metabolism, the Glutamine addiction pathway, and the entries on Warburg-effect diet claims, Ketogenic diets in glioblastoma and the ERGO2 trial.

## Fields

- Kind: Term
- Last checked: 2026-09-08

## Sources

- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warburg_effect_(oncology)
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warburg_effect_(oncology)

## Connected records

- terms: [Atavistic theory: cancer as a reversion to an ancient programme](https://onco.cc/terms/atavistic-theory-of-cancer/), [Hallmark: reprogramming cellular metabolism](https://onco.cc/terms/deregulating-cellular-energetics/), [Metabolic theory of cancer: from Warburg to oncometabolites](https://onco.cc/terms/metabolic-theory-of-cancer/), [Standardised uptake value (SUV)](https://onco.cc/terms/suv/), [Warburg-effect diet claims ('sugar feeds cancer')](https://onco.cc/terms/warburg-effect-diet-claims/)
- technologies: [FDG PET](https://onco.cc/technologies/fdg-pet/), [Ketogenic diets in glioblastoma](https://onco.cc/technologies/ketogenic-diet-glioblastoma/)
- pathways: [Cancer metabolism](https://onco.cc/pathways/cancer-metabolism/), [Glutamine addiction](https://onco.cc/pathways/glutamine-metabolism/), [Nutrient competition & metabolic immunosuppression](https://onco.cc/pathways/nutrient-competition-tme/), [Theories of cancer: how the ideas connect](https://onco.cc/pathways/theories-of-cancer/), [VHL / HIF oxygen sensing](https://onco.cc/pathways/hif-vhl/)
- trials: [ERGO2: ketogenic diet and fasting during re-irradiation of recurrent glioma](https://onco.cc/trials/ergo2/)
- ideas: [One definitive ketogenic diet trial in glioblastoma, then stop](https://onco.cc/ideas/idea-nl-ketogenic-gbm-definitive-trial/)

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