Ferroptosis: Opportunities and Challenges in Cancer

Ferroptosis is a programmed cell death mainly manifested as accumulation of ferrous ions and cell lipid peroxidation. Ferroptosis is well regulated by multiple signaling pathways, of which SLC7A11/GPX4 axis is the key pathway negatively regulating ferroptosis by eliminating lipid peroxidation. While disorder of iron homeostasis catalyzes the lipid peroxidation by supplying ferrous iron. Lipid metabolism participates in ferroptosis by offering lipid substrates. In addition, transsulfuration pathway and FSP1/CoQ10 also involve in ferroptosis. Evading ferroptosis is one strategy that cancer bypass cell death and develop resistant to chemotherapy or radiotherapy, making ferroptosis inducers the potential treatment for cancer. The objective of this review is to summarize the ferroptosis signaling pathways and ferroptosis inducers, thus exploring the opportunities and challenges of inducing ferroptosis in cancer.