The role of DNA damage response in chemo- and radio-resistance of cancer cells: Can DDR inhibitors sole the problem?

Up to now, many improvements have been made in providing more therapeutic strategies for cancer patients. The lack of susceptibility to common therapies like chemo- and radio-therapy is one of the reasons why we need more methods in the field of cancer therapy. DNA damage response (DDR) is a set of mechanisms which identifies DNA lesions and triggers the repair process for restoring DNA after causing an arrest in the cell cycle. The ability of DDR in maintaining the genome stability and integrity can be favorable to cancerous cells which are exposed to radiation therapy or are treated with chemotherapeutic agents. When DDR mechanisms are error-free in cancer cells, they can escape the expected cellular death and display resistance to treatment. In this regard, targeting different components of DDR can help to increase the susceptibility of advanced tumors to chemo- and radio-therapy.