The role of non-apoptotic cell death in the treatment and drug-resistance of digestive tumors

Tumor cell apoptosis evasion is one of the main reasons for easy metastasis occurrence, chemotherapy resistance, and the low five-year survival rate of digestive system tumors. Current research has shown that non-apoptotic cell death plays an important role in tumors of the digestive system. Therefore, increasing the proportion of non-apoptotic tumor cells is one of the effective methods of improving therapeutic efficacies for digestive system tumors. Non-apoptotic cell death modes mainly include autophagic cell death, pyroptosis, ferroptosis, in addition to other cell death modes. This review covers a systematic review relating to the research progress made into autophagic cell death, pyroptosis, ferroptosis, and other cell death modes in the treatment of digestive system tumors. It also highlights how treatment is a reasonable prospect based on clinical experience and provides reliable guidance for the further development of digestive system tumor treatments.