ReviewNature reviews. Drug discovery2026
Synthetic lethality in cancer drug discovery: challenges and opportunities.
Review in Nature reviews. Drug discovery, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed.
- Low-Dose Paclitaxel Combined with Dehydrocavidine Synergistically Suppresses Cervical Cancer by Inhibiting FASN/SCD1-Mediated Lipid Metabolism.Biomolecules · 2026Article
- Sensitizing Colorectal Cancer to PARP Inhibitors: Biomarkers, Mechanisms, and Combination Strategies.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Review
- Integrating molecular subtypes, genomics and functional dependencies to identify context-specific therapeutic vulnerabilities in small cell lung cancer.Biomarker research · 2026Review
- Context-dependent synthetic lethality - an emerging precision therapeutic approach.Nature reviews. Cancer · 2026Review
- The emerging roles of alternative splicing in modulating tumor immune responses and immunotherapies.Cell death and differentiation · 2026Review
- Molecular and Cell Biological Characterization of Patient-Derived Head and Neck Squamous Carcinoma Cell Lines.Cancer science · 2026Article
- Synthetic lethality in cancer: mechanism exploration and therapeutic applications.Cell communication and signaling : CCS · 2026Review
- PRMT5 is Frequently Upregulated and a Potential Therapeutic Target in MTAP-deficient Malignant Peripheral Nerve Sheath Tumors.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Medea: An omics AI agent for therapeutic discovery.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Genomic innovations in cancer prevention, diagnosis, prognosis and precision therapeutics.Frontiers in genetics · 2026Review
- CDK9 degrader induces BRCAness and sensitizes castration-resistant prostate cancer to PARP inhibitor.Theranostics · 2026Article
- Emerging hallmarks and the rise of complexities and heterogeneity of tumor.Biochemistry and biophysics reports · 2025Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Synthetic lethality, first proposed more than two decades ago, has long held immense promise for targeted cancer therapy. Although the clinical success of PARP inhibition in BRCA-mutant cancers stands as proof of concept, few other synthetic lethal interactions have been translated from preclinical findings into effective therapies. This slow pace of translation stems in part from the difficulty of developing drugs against genetic dependencies, but also reflects the cell- and tissue-specific nature of these interactions. In this Review, we outline recent advances in the discovery and validation of synthetic lethal pairs, from their discovery in large-scale genetic screens to the development of drugs for the clinic. We discuss how alternative CRISPR-based approaches - including combinatorial screens, base editing and saturation mutagenesis - are now being used to discover new tractable interactions. We also examine how machine learning models can enable prioritization of candidate pairs and the identification of biomarkers for patient stratification. Finally, we highlight alternative phenotypic readouts, such as high-content imaging and single-cell profiling, which enable the dissection of phenotypes beyond simple cell growth or fitness. Together, these developments are refining the synthetic lethality paradigm and advancing its potential for cancer therapy.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.