New Insights into Ferroptosis of Cancer Cells: Molecular Mechanism and Clinical Perspectives of Ferroptosis in Cancer

A unique biological characteristic of cancer cells is their ability to evade or avoid death, i.e. their immortality. In most cases, drugs used for cancer treatment induce apoptosis, which is a type of programmed cell death. Cancer cells have been found to become resistant to these drugs through a number of mechanisms, including increasing the levels of anti-apoptotic molecules and/or decreasing the levels of pro-apoptotic molecules. However, cancer cells can be killed by other types of cell death, such as ferroptosis, which was first discovered as a form of regulated cell death in 2012. Ferroptosis is an iron-dependent new type of programmed cell death. In ferroptosis, reactions catalyzed by divalent iron or ester oxygenase cause lipid peroxidation of highly expressed unsaturated fatty acids on the cell membrane, leading to cell death. Ferroptosis differs morphologically from apoptosis, necrosis and autophagy. More importantly, inducing ferroptosis can result in the death of drug-resistant cancer cells.

Recent studies have shown that ferroptosis triggers cell death in a variety of cancer cells. Studies have also found that inducing ferroptosis decreases the growth of tumors in certain mouse models of cancer. However, the biological role and exact function of ferroptosis in cancer cells remain unclear, and research into the regulation of ferroptosis is in its early stages. The potential therapeutic effect of ferroptosis on malignant tumors, as well as new compounds targeting ferroptosis, require further investigation.

Therefore, this Research Topic aims to gather a comprehensive list of research articles covering various aspects of ferroptosis in cancer cells and tumors ranging from basic, translational to clinical research.

We welcome the submissions of Original Research articles, Reviews and Mini-reviews related to the following subtopics, which include, but are not limited to:
- Novel mechanisms of ferroptosis: biological signaling pathways that regulate ferroptosis;
- Identification of novel genes or proteins that mediate ferroptosis in cancer cells;
- Compounds or molecules that induce ferroptosis in cancer cells;
- Translational studies involving ferroptosis and cancer.

Please note: Studies consisting solely of bioinformatic investigation of publicly available genomic/transcriptomic/proteomic data do not fall within the scope of the section unless they are expanded and provide significant biological or mechanistic insight into the process being studied. Quantitative analysis must be performed on a minimum number of 3 biological replicates in order to enable an assessment of significance. Studies that do not comply with these requirements will not be considered for review.