2. Academic Validation
  3. Transferrin Receptor Overexpression in Solid Tumors Is Associated with Inflamed Microenvironments and Upregulated Immune Checkpoints, with Implications for Immunotherapy Sensitivity

Transferrin Receptor Overexpression in Solid Tumors Is Associated with Inflamed Microenvironments and Upregulated Immune Checkpoints, with Implications for Immunotherapy Sensitivity

  • Cancers (Basel). 2026 Apr 28;18(9):1402. doi: 10.3390/cancers18091402.
Asaad Trabolsi 1 2,  Marianna Lekakis 1,  Peter M Commisso 3,  Nishant Gandhi 4,  Andrew Elliott 4,  Stephen V Liu 5,  Patrick C Ma 6,  Dave S B Hoon 7,  Shuanzeng Wei 8,  Emmanuel S Antonarakis 9,  Artavazd Arumov 1 2,  Jonathan H Schatz 1 2
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Miami, FL 33136, USA.
  • 2 Division of Hematology, Department of Medicine, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Miami, FL 33136, USA.
  • 3 University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL 33124, USA.
  • 4 Caris Life Sciences, Phoenix, AZ 85040, USA.
  • 5 Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, Georgetown University, Washington, DC 20007, USA.
  • 6 LSU-LCMC Health Cancer Center, Louisiana State University Health Science Center, New Orlans, LA 70112, USA.
  • 7 St. John's Cancer Institute, Providence Healthcare Services, Santa Monica, CA 90404, USA.
  • 8 Fox Chase Cancer Center, Philadelphia, PA 19111, USA.
  • 9 Masonic Cancer Center, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA.
PMID: 42122198 DOI: 10.3390/cancers18091402
Abstract

Background/Objectives: Overexpression of Transferrin Receptor (TFR1) is common in Cancer and may be associated with inferior treatment outcomes. Due to these patterns and TFR1's essential role in iron metabolism, the protein has been targeted for cytotoxic drug delivery. More recently, increased TFR1 expression has been linked to tumor microenvironment (TME) infiltration by immune effectors in selected tumors, but a comprehensive assessment of the genomic landscape associated TFRC (the gene encoding TFR1) expression has not been conducted. Methods: By utilizing a pan-cancer database of 93,248 patients with whole-exome and whole-transcriptome Sequencing, we assessed TFRC-associated multiomic patterns. Results: We found that high TFRC expression correlates with significantly worse overall survival in multiple common solid tumor types, a higher tumor mutational burden (TMB), an increase in infiltrating effector cells with upregulated immune checkpoint markers within the TME, and increased frequency of specific high-risk genomic alterations. Further assessment in cell line models revealed increased susceptibility to cytotoxic T cells when iron metabolism is elevated, despite upregulation of the checkpoint ligand PD-L1. Conclusions: High TFRC expression, therefore, indicates worse clinical risk across multiple common tumor types but potentially increased susceptibility to cytotoxic immune effectors, informing the development of TFR1 biomarker-driven therapeutic strategies.

Keywords

TFR1; TFRC; ferroptosis; immune evasion; transferrin receptor.

Figures
Products