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Fig. 5 | Theoretical Biology and Medical Modelling

Fig. 5

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

Fig. 5

Contour plot of the estimated energetic tumor cost based on energy metabolism and tumor mass. The estimated energetic cost of the tumor, P cost , in kcal/day, is plotted based on its mass, M cancer , and the percentage of ATP the tumor generates anaerobically through glycolysis, X anaerobic . The plot uses equation (7), with K cancer  = 200 kcal/kg tumor/day found in Study A (see Table 3). Early stage tumors may not present a high cost, but as tumors grow and become more glycolytic, their cost will increase and may induce a catabolic, cachexic state. Patients from the retrospective colorectal cancer cohort in [35], n = 30 (Study A) are plotted in red, with assumed 25 % ATP generated by glycolysis, where tumor mass is estimated by taking their final (liver + metastases) mass and subtracting the initial (liver + metastases) mass in the final 12 months of their disease. This is to provide an illustration of where cachexic patients may fit within this map and should only be considered as a very rough estimate of tumor energetic cost. For the thirty patients, the mean tumor burden is 0.83 kg (equivalent to a cost of 250 kcal/day), standard deviation is 1.06 kg, and a patient with estimated tumor mass of 4.7 kg, outside the axis of the figure, is not shown

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