Decoding the coupled decision-making of the epithelial-mesenchymal transition and metabolic reprogramming in cancer

Cancer metastasis relies on an orchestration of traits driven by different interacting functional modules, including metabolism and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT). During metastasis, cancer cells can acquire a hybrid metabolic phenotype (W/O) by increasing oxidative phosphorylation without compromising glycolysis and they can acquire a hybrid epithelial/mesenchymal (E/M) phenotype by engaging EMT. Both the W/O and E/M states are associated with high metastatic potentials, and many regulatory links coupling metabolism and EMT have been identified. Here, we investigate the coupled decision-making networks of metabolism and EMT. Their crosstalk can exhibit synergistic or antagonistic effects on the acquisition and stability of different coupled metabolism-EMT states. Strikingly, the aggressive E/M-W/O state can be enabled and stabilized by the crosstalk irrespective of these hybrid states’ availability in individual metabolism or EMT modules. Our work emphasizes the mutual activation between metabolism and EMT, providing an important step toward understanding the multifaceted nature of cancer metastasis.