The Dual Nature of Iron in Relation to Cancer: A Review

Although iron is essential for all cells, it could be potentially hazardous. This is mostly due to iron participation in oxidation-reduction reactions. In terms of cancer risk, the role of both iron deficiency and overload can be studied in two directions, protective or therapeutic effects, and carcinogenic effects.
PubMed, Science direct, Ovid, Proquest, Medline, and Google scholar databases were used to obtain articles identified by using the key words “Iron”, “Iron deficiency”, “Iron overload”, “Cancer”, and “Neoplasm” without any time limit. The relevance of studies was identified by reviewing the titles and the abstracts. 185 articles published in English, including experimental, observational, molecular and cellular studies were reviewed.
Results and Considering the dual nature of iron, maintaining an optimal iron level in the body is important. This can be achieved when regulatory mechanisms of body iron level work properly and the amount of iron input is within the physiological range. Current evidence generally supports this possibility that higher animal-derived (heme) iron may increase the risk of some cancers. The release of iron or nitrosyl heme from iron complexes during some processing of meat may increase production of cancer promoter lipoperoxides. On the other hand, use of iron chelation or iron mediated oxidative assault for the treatment or prevention of cancer appears to be promising; but further research is required. Considering this background, this article reviews the literature and evidence, focusing on the role of iron overload and deficiency in developing and treatment of various cancers.