Chen P et al. (2020) demonstrated the anti-tumor effects of combined treatment with the ferroptosis inducer β-elemene and cetuximab, which triggers ferroptosis in CRC patients who do not respond to cetuximab (Chen P et al., 2020). Furthermore, our work reveals that the upregulated GPX4 and ferrous iron seen in anti-colorectal cancer drug-tolerant persister cells may be potential therapeutic targets, and GPX4 inhibition combined with chemotherapy or targeted therapy may be a promising therapy for CRC (Zhang et al., 2022b). The gene discussed is GPX4; the disease is colorectal carcinoma.