Mutations in DNA repair genes are known drivers of hereditary cancers. However, only a tiny fraction of patients with hereditary breast or ovarian cancers have BRCA1/2 mutations involved in homologous recombination (HR) DNA repair.
Researchers led by Nidhi Sahni, Ph.D., calculated scores across tumors from The Cancer Genome Atlas to comprehensively identify positive or negative tumors for HR defects. Around 75% of tumors with a positive HR score did not have deficiencies in known HR genes, but the researchers identified nearly 100 candidate HR-related genes.
They found that RNA-binding protein (RBP) genes were mainly enriched in genome-wide screens for cancer risk, highlighting their potential role as drivers of HR repair. Previous studies have linked RBPs to DNA damage repair, and this study provides further insights into specific RBPs and their role as novel drivers of HR deficiency, directly or via regulating other HR repair genes.
These findings have implications for screening, patient risk stratification, and developing therapeutic strategies.