Review of mammalian DNA repair and translational implications

The area of mammalian DNA repair and its relationship to cancer and therape utic approaches is rapidly growing, both through the studies of basic mecha nisms and in the use of this knowledge for translational applications. We h ave attempted to briefly and succinctly cover the four pathways of mammalia n DNA repair, which are: direct reversal, mismatch, nucleotide excision, an d base excision repair. We have also tried to identify and reference result s in the literature relating the various repair pathways to cellular resist ance following chemotherapeutic treatments and to provide some potential di rection whereby laboratory results may be applicable to clinical therapeuti cs, particularly for cancer treatments.