Application prospects of ferroptosis in colorectal cancer

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a serious threat to human health with the third morbidity and the second cancer-related mortality worldwide. It is urgent to explore more effective strategy for CRC because of the acquired treatment resistance from the non-surgical conventional therapies, including radiation, chemotherapy, targeted therapy and immunotherapy. Ferroptosis is a novel form of programmed cell death characterized by iron-dependent lipid peroxidation species (ROS) accumulation and has been identified as a promising target for cancer treatment, especially for those with treatment resistance. In this review, we mainly summarize the recent studies on the influence and regulation of ferroptosis by which (including gut microbiota) modulating the metabolism of iron, amino acid and lipid. Thus this analysis may provide potential targets for inducing CRC ferroptosis and shed lights on the future application of ferroptosis in CRC.