DNA damage responses in cancer stem cells: Implications for cancer therapeutic strategies

Figure 1 DNA damage responses and consequences in cancer treatment with DNA-damaging agents. DNA-damaging agent-induced DNA lesions can (1) activate cell cycle checkpoint to arrest the cell cycle progression to allow time for repair before the damage is passed on to daughter cells; (2) activate specific DNA repair pathways to remove the lesions; (3) or enables continuous functioning of replication by bypassing the DNA lesions through translesion DNA synthesis. Thus, highly efficient DDR can promote the survival of cancer cells upon DNA-damaging agent treatment.