Beyond CAF activation, TGF‐β critically modulates fibroblast metabolism via TGF‐β1/Smad signaling, which under hypoxic conditions synergistically induces MCT4/glycolytic enzyme overexpression (LDHA, PKM2, and HK2) and tumor EMT to potentiate metastasis [47, 68]. Here, HK2 is linked to neoplasm.