Abstract
Significance Tissue-specific lactic acidosis in cancer stimulates and mediates tumor invasion and metastasis and is druggable. Rarely, malignancy causes systemic lactic acidosis, the role of which is poorly understood.
Recent advances The understanding of the role of lactate has shifted dramatically since its discovery. Long recognized as only a waste product, lactate has become known as an alternative metabolism substrate and secreted nutrient that is exchanged between the tumor and the microenvironment.
Tissue-specific lactic acidosis is targeted to improve the host body's anticancer defense and serves as a tool that allows the targeting of anticancer compounds. Systemic lactic acidosis is associated with poor survival.
In patients with solid cancer, systemic lactic acidosis is associated with an extremely poor prognosis, as revealed by the analysis of 57 published cases in this study. Although it is considered a pathology worth treating, targeting systemic lactic acidosis in patients with solid cancer is usually inefficient.
Critical issues Research gaps include simple questions, such as the unknown nuclear pH of the cancer cells and its effects on chemotherapy outcomes, pH sensitivity of glycosylation in cancer cells, in vivo mechanisms of response to acidosis in the absence of lactate, and overinterpretation of in vitro results that were obtained using cells that were not preadapted to acidic environments. Future directions Numerous metabolism-targeting anticancer compounds induce lactatemia, lactic acidosis or other types of acidosis.
Their potential to induce acidic environments is largely overlooked, although these compounds might contribute to a substantial portion of the observed clinical effects.