What is Synthetic Lethality and How is it Applied in Cancer Treatment?
Synthetic lethality occurs when the simultaneous loss of function in two genes leads to cell death, whereas the loss of function in only one gene does not. This concept is applied in cancer treatment by targeting DNA repair pathways that are already compromised in cancer cells. For example, BRCA-mutated tumors are more susceptible to PARP inhibitors because these tumors rely heavily on PARP-mediated repair due to their defective homologous recombination.
