The National Cancer Center (NCC) said its researchers have figured out that fatty acids are the energy source of cancer cells, for the first time in the world.

It had been known that cancer cells metabolize glucose through the glycolysis process that breaks down glucose into lactic acid. Dr. Otto Heinrich Warburg received the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1931 for identifying such an action.

However, the NCC research team, led by Professor Kim Soo-yeol, disproved Dr. Warburg’s theory after confirming that cancer cells' energy source is not glucose but fatty acids, through cell and animal experiments.

"At the time of Dr. Warburg's experiment, researchers conducted the test with a culture medium containing only glucose, which provided incorrect information," the team said.

The NCC researchers confirmed that cancer cells grow faster by using more oxygen than normal cells through cell experiments under culture conditions similar to those of the human body. They also found that while normal cells' energy source is glucose, cancer cells are entirely dependent on fatty acid oxidation.

As a result, the team confirmed that blocking fatty acid intake and replacing it with carbohydrates in a naturally occurring mouse model of pancreatic cancer resulted in a four-fold reduction in cancer incidences.

"By replacing the energy source with carbohydrates from fatty acids, we could reduce cancer incidence by four times, which is comparable to chemotherapy," Professor Kim said. "The research results suggest that new treatments that block cancer energy metabolism may be available in addition to existing treatments."

The results will also help explain the mechanism or cause into the well-known fact that obesity increases the mortality rate in all cancers, he added.

The journal Cancers published the result of the study.