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Updated: Apr 24, 2026

A Data Integration Workflow to Identify Drug Combinations Targeting Synthetic Lethal Interactions
Published on: May 27, 2021
RADical response puts an exceptional responder in CHKmate: a synthetic lethal curative response to DNA-damaging
Guang Peng1, Scott E Woodman2, Gordon B Mills3
1Department of Clinical Cancer Prevention, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas. gpeng@mdanderson.org.
Summary:
In this issue of Cancer Discovery, AI-Ahmadie and colleagues identify a somatic mutation in the RAD50 gene as a likely contributing factor to an unusual curative response to systemic combination therapy employing the DNA-damaging agent irinotecan and a checkpoint kinase 1 inhibitor in a patient with recurrent, metastatic small-cell cancer. This study highlights the importance of in-depth analysis of exceptional responders to chemotherapy and targeted therapy in early-phase clinical trials and opens new avenues for developing cancer genome-based combination therapy to improve the efficacy of traditional chemotherapy through synthetically lethal interactions.
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