Recent experiments indicate that uniformly compressing a cancer mass at its surface tends to transform many of its cells from proliferative to functional forms. Cancer cells suffer from the Warburg effect, resulting from depleted levels of cell membrane potentials. We show that the compression results in added free energy and that some of the added energy contributes distortional pressure to the cells. This excites the piezoelectric effect on the cell membranes, in particular raising the potentials on the membranes of cancer cells from their depleted levels to near-normal levels. In a sample calculation, a gain of 150 mV in is so attained. This allows the Warburg effect to be reversed. The result is at least partially regained function and accompanying increased molecular order. The transformation remains even when the pressure is turned off, suggesting a change of phase; these possibilities are briefly discussed. It is found that if the pressure is, in particular, applied adiabatically the process obeys the second law of thermodynamics, further validating the theoretical model.