Table 1.

Section summary and key “take home” messages.

	Section	Key messages
1.	Ovarian cancer and chemoresistance	Ovarian cancer is the most lethal gynecological malignancy. Resistance to platinum-based chemotherapy is a major obstacle to treating patients with ovarian cancer.
2.	DNA repair proteins as therapeutic targets	DNA damage repair proteins are rational but understudied targets for developing strategies to overcome platinum resistance.
3.	Homologous recombination repair deficiency is associated with chemoresponse	Defects in homologous recombination are associated with high risk of developing ovarian cancer. These defects may also be used as theranostic markers of response to platinum- and PARP inhibitor-based chemotherapies.
4.	DNA-PKcs as a therapeutic target for ovarian cancer	DNA-PKcs is a core mediator of the non-homologous end joining pathway, which functions to repair DNA double-strand breaks. Post-translational modifications and protein–protein interactions regulate DNA-PKcs activity. DNA-PKcs inhibition has been widely associated with restoring radio- and chemo-sensitivity in a range of cancers. DNA-PKcs inhibitors developed to date are largely unsuitable for clinical use.
5.	DNA-PKcs inhibition as a platinum sensitization strategy	DNA-PKcs inhibition shows considerable promise as a strategy for reversing platinum resistance in ovarian cancer.