A Physiological Function for Ferroptosis in Tumor Suppression by the Immune System

Ferroptosis is a form of regulated cell death involving lethal peroxidation of phospholipids (Hirschhorn and Stockwell, 2019). Recent results reveal that ferroptosis mediates the tumor suppressive activity of interferon gamma secreted by CD8(+) T cells in response to immune checkpoint blockade, suggesting the immune system may function in part through ferroptosis to prevent tumorigenesis (Wang et al., 2019).