DNA Repair Mechanism Aids Cancer by Mending Chemo Damage

Chemotherapy could be more effective if it were combined with the inhibition of a newly discovered form of DNA repair, a mechanism that cells activate to fix exactly the sort of damage that many chemotherapy drugs cause—or are supposed to cause. The relevant chemotherapy drugs are alkylating agents, which try to kill cancer cells by adding alkyl groups to DNA. These debilitating accretions, however, can be removed by an alkylation repair complex.   This repair complex is recruited to