DNA Damage and Repair Mechanisms in Cancer
A special issue of International Journal of Molecular Sciences (ISSN 1422-0067). This special issue belongs to the section "Molecular Oncology".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 25 May 2026 | Viewed by 35
Special Issue Editor
Interests: DNA damage repair; DNA damage response; synthetic lethality; breast cancer
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Cancer cells, by acquiring defects in several components of the DNA damage response (DDR) machinery, increase their rate of mutation, allowing genome instability to accumulate. Genomic instability fuels tumorigenesis, but, on the other hand, deficiencies in DDR pathways in cancer cells render them vulnerable. A cancer cell with a DDR deficiency becomes dependent on an alternative DDR pathway for survival, thus providing a therapeutic opportunity in which selectively inhibiting the alternative pathway can lead to cell death. This concept is known as synthetic lethality, and for the first time, about 20 years ago, thanks to the work of Ashworth and Helleday, it was translated to cancer therapy. Exploiting human tumor deficiencies in the DDR network could help manage cancer therapy. For this purpose, it is essential to have a better understanding of the rewiring of the DDR network in cancer. We warmly accept any contribution, as research papers or reviews on this topic, helping in the understanding of DDR in cancer.
This Special Issue will be supervised by Dr. Luigi Alfano, with assistance from Dr. Maria Cuomo (University of Siena).
Dr. Luigi Alfano
Guest Editor
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Keywords
- DNA damage response (DDR)
- genome instability
- synthethic lethality
- DNA repair
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