{
  "abstract": "Background\n\nCancer cells frequently alter iron metabolism by increasing uptake or decreasing export, promoting oncogenesis and proliferation. However, the quantitative relationship between iron homeostasis and cancer remains underexplored.Methods and results\n\nWe simplified these alterations into measurable changes in the expression levels of iron transport-related genes. We investigated the expression of iron transport-related genes by comparing genomic data of 478 human cancer cell lines to 105 normal tissue samples, as well as analyzing clinically paired 6903 tumor to 709 normal samples. We revealed that cancer cells exhibited increased expression of transferrin receptor 1 (TFR1) or CD44 for iron uptake and decreased expression of ferroportin for iron efflux to favor iron accumulation. Using machine learning, we identified TFR1, CD44, and ferroportin as the top three features consistently associated most with patient survival. We developed a cancer-specific iron risk score (CIRS) using parametric time-to-event models based on RNA-seq data from TFR1, CD44, and ferroportin in 4723 patients spanning 15 cancers. The CIRS, cross-validated in five external datasets, significantly stratified survival risk for various cancers, and predicted chemotherapy response in two independent breast cancer pharmacogenomic datasets.Conclusions\n\nOur study enhances the understanding of the relationship between iron homeostasis, survival, and chemotherapy response, laying the groundwork for iron-targeted therapies.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "School of Pharmacy, Faculty of Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, P. R. China.",
    "Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Joint Laboratory for New Drug Screening, School of Pharmacy, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, P. R. China.",
    "Clinical Pharmacology and Quantitative Science, Genmab Inc., Princeton, NJ, USA.",
    "School of Pharmacy, Faculty of Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, P. R. China. xiaoyuyan@cuhk.edu.hk.",
    "Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Joint Laboratory for New Drug Screening, School of Pharmacy, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, P. R. China. xiaoyuyan@cuhk.edu.hk.",
    "The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 8th Floor, Lo Kwee-Seong Integrated Biomedical Sciences Building, Area 39, Shatin, N.T. Hong Kong, China. xiaoyuyan@cuhk.edu.hk."
  ],
  "article_type": "research article",
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 4,
  "authors": [
    {
      "affs": [
        0,
        1
      ],
      "name": "Xiaoqing Fan"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0,
        1
      ],
      "name": "Kangna Cao"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        2
      ],
      "name": "Xu Steven Xu"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        3,
        4,
        5
      ],
      "name": "Xiaoyu Yan"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/3sq8167zxps6j.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.1186/s13040-026-00589-3",
  "fulltext_url": "https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC13685333",
  "id": "3sq8167zxps6j",
  "issns": [
    "1756-0381"
  ],
  "landing_url": "https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42902310",
  "language": "eng",
  "licence": "CC-BY",
  "licence_label": "CC BY",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "lcc",
      "QA299.6-433"
    ],
    [
      "lcc",
      "R858-859.7"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "2740|Ferroptosis and cancer prognosis"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7170949262",
  "pdf_url": "https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC13685333?pdf=render",
  "pmcid": "PMC13685333",
  "pmid": "42902310",
  "published": "2026-07-01",
  "publisher": "BMC",
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/3sq8167zxps6j.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:19:41Z",
      "native_id": "MED:42902310",
      "source": "europepmc",
      "url": "https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42902310"
    },
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T13:45:46Z",
      "native_id": "81a5f66c081444fb88dd10ca5dce71a7",
      "source": "doaj",
      "url": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s13040-026-00589-3"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "biochemistry",
      "origin": "journal-openalex:1312|Bioinformatics and Genomic Networks",
      "subfield": "molecular-biology"
    },
    {
      "field": "mathematics",
      "origin": "lcc:QA299.6-433",
      "subfield": "general"
    },
    {
      "field": "medicine",
      "origin": "lcc:R858-859.7",
      "subfield": "general"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Iron homeostasis landscape informs patient survival and neoadjuvant chemotherapy response in cancer.",
  "title_text": "Iron homeostasis landscape informs patient survival and neoadjuvant chemotherapy response in cancer.",
  "type": "peer-reviewed",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T13:45:46Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/3sq8167zxps6j",
  "venue": "BioData mining",
  "versions": []
}