Metabolic regulation of suppressive myeloid cells in cancer

Cancer cells rewire their metabolism to promote growth, survival, proliferation and long-term maintenance. The common feature of this altered metabolism is the increased glucose uptake and fermentation of glucose to lactate, which is observed even in the presence of completely functioning mitochondria. This effect is known as the ‘Warburg Effect’ and its intensive investigation in the last decade has partially established either its causes or its functions. It is now emerging that a major side effect of the Warburg Effect is immunosuppression, which limits the immunogenicity of cancer cells and therefore restricts the therapeutic efficacy of anticancer immunotherapy. Here we discuss how the metabolic communication between cancer and infiltrating myeloid cells contributes to cancer immune evasion and how the understanding of these mechanisms may improve current immunotherapies.