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Background

Ferroptosis is a type of programmed cell death dependent on iron metabolism distinct from necrosis and apoptosis. In pancreatic ductal adenocarcinomas (PDAC), studies have noted that ferroptosis signatures are also associated with survival. However, no studies have attempted to find histological correlates which might suggest a ferroptosis process occurring.

Methods

PDACs from the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) Pan-Cancer were used. Clinicopathological, DNA, histological slides, and mRNA expression data were extracted with the GDC Data Transfer Tool. A scree plot was generated to determine the optimal number of clustering groups based on ferroptosis molecular signatures. A K-means clustering approach was used in STATA. Groups of less than 5 patients were excluded. The ferroptosis-based clusters were correlated to clinical, histological, molecular, and survival parameters. Gene Set …