A ferroptosis-related gene signature predicts overall survival in patients with lung adenocarcinoma

Aims: To elucidate the association between ferroptosis-related genes and prognosis in patients with lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD). Materials & methods: A ferroptosis-related gene signature was made by lasso regression analysis through the LUAD datasets of the Cancer Genome Atlas. The prognostic value of the multigene signature was externally validated in the GSE72094 dataset from the Gene Expression Omnibus database. Gene ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes analysis were used to explore underlying mechanisms. Results and conclusion: We established a novel ferroptosis-related gene signature for overall survival in LUAD that was predictive in both the training and validation cohorts. Immune-related pathways were significantly enriched, and immune status differed between the high- and low-risk groups. Targeting ferroptosis is a potential therapeutic option in LUAD. These results still need to be confirmed by more studies. Lay abstract: Lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) is a common type of lung cancer, a major contributor to cancer-related death in men and women worldwide. Ferroptosis is a form of regulated cell death that is dependent on iron. The relationship between ferroptosis-related gene expression and survival in patients with LUAD remains to be elucidated. In this article, the public datasets the Cancer Genome Atlas and the Gene Expression Omnibus were used to create a model with 12 ferroptosis genes to separate LUAD patients into high- and low-risk groups. The low-risk group had better survival than the high-risk group. We also found that the immune status was different in high-risk and low-risk patients. In conclusion, our study established a novel ferroptosis-related gene signature for survival in LUAD. The underlying mechanisms involve tumor immunity.