Clinical and Biological Significances of a Ferroptosis-Related Gene Signature in Glioma

Ferroptosis is a form of cell death characterized by non-apoptosis induced by small molecules in tumors. Studies have demonstrated that ferroptosis regulates the biological behaviors of tumors. Therefore, genes that control ferroptosis can be a promising candidate bioindicator in tumor therapy. Herein, functions of ferroptosis-related genes in glioma were investigated. We systematically assessed the relationship between ferroptosis-related genes expression profiles and prognosis in glioma patients based on The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and Chinese Glioma Genome Atlas (CGGA) RNA sequencing datasets. Using the non-negative matrix factorization (NMF) clustering method, 84 ferroptosis-related genes in the RNA sequencing data were distinctly classified into two subgroups (named cluster 1 and cluster 2) in glioma. The least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) was used to develop a 25 gene risk signature. The relationship between the gene risk signature and clinical features in glioma was characterized. Results show that the gene risk signature associated with clinical features can be as an independent prognostic indicator in glioma patients. Collectively, the ferroptosis-related risk signature presented in this study can potentially predict the outcome of glioma patients.