REVIEW article
Front. Oncol.
Sec. Cancer Metabolism
The role of abnormal amino acid metabolism in the occurrence and development of tumors
Provisionally accepted
- 1Zhongda Hospital, Southeast University, Nanjing, China
- 2Jingjiang Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital, Taizhou, China
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The proliferation, migration, and invasion of tumor cells require a large amount of nutrients. Among them, the uptake of amino acids is crucial for most cellular functions, such as protein synthesis and cell growth. Tumor cells obtain a large number of essential amino acids from the environment through unique metabolic pathways and accelerate the synthesis of non-essential amino acids to meet their own needs. This review summarizes the uptake and utilization of amino acids by tumors and their inhibitory effects on immune cells, providing a basis for targeted metabolism in cancer treatment.
Keywords: Amino acid, clinic, Immunity, Metabolism, tumor
Received: 03 Dec 2025; Accepted: 10 Feb 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Zhang, Chen and Shao. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Yuting Zhang
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.