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©The Author(s) 2026. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Oncol. Jan 24, 2026; 17(1): 114012
Published online Jan 24, 2026. doi: 10.5306/wjco.v17.i1.114012
Published online Jan 24, 2026. doi: 10.5306/wjco.v17.i1.114012
Ferritin as a novel predictive index for nasopharyngeal carcinoma survival and therapeutic efficacy of different chemotherapy regimens
Qi Tang, Yao Wu, Lin Chen, Qun-Ying Jia, Fa-Qing Tang, Department of Clinical Laboratory and Hunan Key Laboratory of Oncotarget Gene, Hunan Cancer Hospital & The Affiliated Cancer Hospital of Xiangya School of Medicine, Central South University, Changsha 410013, Hunan Province, China
Yao Wu, Lin Chen, The First Hospital, Hunan University of Chinese Medicine, Changsha 410208, Hunan Province, China
Author contributions: Tang FQ, Tang Q, Wu Y, Chen L, and Jia QY designed the research study; Tang Q, Wu Y, Chen L, and Jia QY performed the research; Tang FQ, Tang Q, and Wu Y contributed new reagents and analytic tools; Tang Q, Chen L, and Jia QY analyzed the data and wrote the manuscript. All authors have read and approved the final manuscript.
Supported by Major Scientific and Technological Innovation Project of Hunan Province, No. 2021SK1020-4; Natural Science Foundation of Hunan Province, No. 2019JJ40174; and Research Projects of the Hunan Health Commission, No. B2019084.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by the Institutional Review Board of Hunan Cancer Hospital (Approval No. 2024-KYJYCXCC-30).
Informed consent statement: All study participants, or their legal guardian, provided informed written consent prior to study enrollment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflict of interest for this study.
Data sharing statement: Technical appendix, statistical code, and dataset available from the corresponding author at tangfq@hnca.org.cn. Participants gave informed consent for data sharing.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Fa-Qing Tang, Director, Professor, Hunan Key Laboratory of Oncotarget Gene, Hunan Cancer Hospital & The Affiliated Cancer Hospital of Xiangya School of Medicine, Central South University, No. 283 Tongzipo Road, Changsha 410013, Hunan Province, China. tangfq@hnca.org.cn
Received: September 15, 2025
Revised: October 25, 2025
Accepted: November 25, 2025
Published online: January 24, 2026
Processing time: 133 Days and 0.4 Hours
Revised: October 25, 2025
Accepted: November 25, 2025
Published online: January 24, 2026
Processing time: 133 Days and 0.4 Hours
Core Tip
Core Tip: In this study, a large-sample analysis of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) patients showed that chemotherapy regimens can improve the survival rate and prognosis of NPC patients. The Ferritin index is the most significant indicator for distinguishing NPC patients. Cox regression and receiver operating characteristic curve analysis, supported by decision curve analysis across training and validation sets, demonstrated that the Ferritin index significantly enhanced the predictive ability of the basic risk model for 5-year mortality. These findings support the development of a novel Ferritin-based biomarker for the diagnosis and prognosis of NPC.