After elucidating the importance of TEM8 in collagen endocytosis of stromal cells, we then set out to determine the role of collagen in tumor growth and discovered that tumor cells exploit glutamine, a downstream metabolite of collagen degradation, to promote their growth and survival under nutrient-limited conditions, thus uncovering the function of TEM8 in homeostasis and disease. Here, ANTXR1 is linked to neoplasm.