Paper published in Cancer Discovery today

Our study was published today in Cancer Discovery! The study is entitled "NCOA4-Mediated Ferritinophagy Is a Pancreatic Cancer Dependency via Maintenance of Iron Bioavailability for Iron–Sulfur Cluster Proteins". Briefly, the cell autonomous metabolic role of autophagy in pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PDAC) has been studied in detail; however, it remains unclear what are the substrates that autophagy provides to support tumors. Using pre-clinical models of PDAC, we now identify that NCOA4-mediated selective autophagy of ferritin, the cellular iron storage complex, is upregulated in PDAC to support iron metabolism for iron-sulfur cluster protein function. Targeting NCOA4 delays tumor progression and prolongs survival. These results align with data from patient cohorts where a low ferritinophagy expression signature correlates with improved survival in PDAC patients. This study defines NCOA4-mediated ferritinophagy as a therapeutic target in PDAC.

In addition to our study, our collaborators at UCSF (Perera Lab) published a study in the same edition identifying that NCOA4-mediated ferritinophagy is upregulated in response to MAPK pathway inhibition suggesting a useful combination therapy for pancreatic cancer.

Finally, both of our studies were featured on the cover of the journal (image above - credit to Cancer Discovery) and reviewed in a great preview authored by the Amaravadi Lab.