Source: Inside Precision Medicine, June 2025
A new study in Cancer has uncovered a surprising vulnerability in melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer: its dependence on mitochondrial function. The findings, led by Jeovanis Gil, PhD, and colleagues at Lund University, suggest that this weakness can be exploited using existing drugs—particularly certain antibiotics and mitochondrial energy inhibitors—offering a promising new therapeutic approach for hard-to-treat and aggressive melanomas.
“For decades, the dogma has been that cancer cells rely mainly on glycolysis to generate energy,” said Gil. “But when we looked closely at melanoma, we kept seeing something different—tumor cells that were clearly relying on mitochondria. That was unexpected, and we realized it might be more than a quirk. It could be a vulnerability.”