The treatment of cancer mainly involves surgical excision supplemented by radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Chemotherapy drugs act by interfering with tumor growth and inducing the death of cancer cells. Anti-tumor drugs were developed to induce apoptosis, but some patient’s show apoptosis escape and chemotherapy resistance. Therefore, other forms of cell death that can overcome the resistance of tumor cells are important in the context of cancer treatment. Ferroptosis is a newly discovered iron-dependent, non-apoptotic type of cell death that is highly negatively correlated with cancer development. Ferroptosis is mainly caused by the abnormal increase in iron-dependent lipid reactive oxygen species and the imbalance of redox homeostasis. This review summarizes the progression and regulatory mechanism of ferroptosis in cancer and discusses its possible clinical applications in cancer diagnosis and treatment.

癌症的治疗以手术切除为主，放化疗为辅。化疗药物通过干扰肿瘤生长和诱导癌细胞死亡而起作用。抗肿瘤药物被开发用于诱导细胞凋亡，但一些患者表现出细胞凋亡逃逸和化疗耐药。因此，可以克服肿瘤细胞抵抗力的其他形式的细胞死亡在癌症治疗的背景下很重要。铁死亡是一种新发现的铁依赖性、非凋亡类型的细胞死亡，与癌症发展高度负相关。铁死亡主要是由铁依赖性脂质活性氧异常增加和氧化还原稳态失衡引起的。