The correlation analysis from TCGA dataset showed that FTH1 displayed significant positive correlations with the CBS (r = 0.718; p = 0.0195), LPCAT3 (r = 0.751; p = 0.0124), and TTC35 (r = 0.671; p = 0.0337) genes in the control group, while it was strongly negatively correlated with the CBS (G2; r = − 0.489; p = 0.0083), LPCAT3 (G1; r = − 0.979; p < 0.0001), and TP53 (G2; r = − 0.379; p = 0.0469 and G3; r = − 0.691; p = 0.0089) genes in pancreatic tumor tissues (Table 2). This evidence concerns the gene EMC2 and pancreatic neoplasm.