DNA repair genes BRCA1 and DNA-PKcs have great potential in radiation therapy.

Radiotherapy is a part of the front-line treatment regime for many cancers. The mechanisms of radiation-induced effects in cancers mainly involves double-strand breaks (DBS) which plays very important role in maintaining the stability of gene. As DNA repair gene breast cancer 1 (BRCA1) and DNA-dependent protein kinase catalytic subunit (DNA-PKcs) can act to maintain genetic stability though two distinct and complementary mechanisms for DNA DSB repair-homologous recombination (HR) and non-homologous end joining (NHEJ). Therefor, BRCA1 and DNA-PKcs are closely associated with radiation sensitivity, which means that they may be used as a useful tool to predict radio sensitivity in human tumour cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]