Figure 1.

An overview of the main DNA repair systems. DNA can be damaged by exogenous or endogenous agents. A DNA repair defect can be a source of mutations that drive malignancy progression. Sometimes there is a cooperation between different repair pathways to solve complex DNA lesions, such as ICLs. In this sense, a fine-tune cooperation between HR and NER orchestrated by FA is required. SSBs: Single Strand Breaks, BER: Base Excision Repair, IDL: Insertion-Deletion Loops, MMR: Mismatch Repair System, NER: Nucleotide Excision Repair, TC-NER: Transcription coupled-NER, G-NER: Global-NER, DSBs: Double-Strand Breaks, NHEJ: Non-Homologous End Joining, HR: Homologous Recombination, ICL: Interstrand Cross Links, FA: Fanconi Anemia Pathway.