Tumor biologists in the Department of Colorectal Cancer at Zhejiang University School of Medicine in Hangzhou, China, found in both animal models and human cancers that specific amino acids predominate in crucial cancer-cell survival strategies. For example, increased usage of the amino acid arginine aided rapid tumor progression, while reduced metabolism of another amino acid, lysine, prevented the activation of cytotoxic T cells, commonly known as killer T cells. The research is reported in the journal Science Immunology.
