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Fig. 2 | Theoretical Biology and Medical Modelling

Fig. 2

From: Modeling the energetic cost of cancer as a result of altered energy metabolism: implications for cachexia

Fig. 2

The cost of aerobic and anaerobic metabolism of the tumor on the body. A tumor will consume substrates both aerobically and anaerobically. The substrate usage of both an aerobic and an anaerobic tumor is described. Anaerobic metabolism costs the body three times more energy due to the cost of recycling lactate back into the glucose lost to the tumor (see Additional file 1 and equation (6)). The substrate usage is equivalent to describe the metabolic rates of the aerobic and anaerobic tumor, which leads to the definitions of the metabolic cost of the cancer on the body, P cost , and the metabolic rate of the tumor, P cancer . The percentage of energy produced anaerobically by the tumor, X anaerobic , is also illustrated

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