Tumors are not a comfortable place to live: oxygen deficiency, nutrient scarcity, and the accumulation of sometimes harmful metabolic products constantly stress cancer cells.

A research team from the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) and the Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP) in Vienna has now discovered that the acidic pH value in tumor tissue—known as acidosis—is a decisive factor in how pancreatic cancer cells adapt their energy metabolism in order to survive under these adverse conditions.

The results are published in the journal Science.