Synthetic lethality and cancer

Synthetic lethal genetic interactions with tumour-specific mutations may be exploited to develop anticancer therapeutics.Synthetic dosage lethality and conditional synthetic lethality can expand the scope of conventional synthetic lethal studies.Genetic interaction networks in model organisms provide a framework for screening cancer-relevant candidate synthetic lethal interactions in human cells.Large-scale screening for cancer gene-specific synthetic lethal candidates in human cells has progressed through advances in RNA interference and the CRISPR–Cas9 system.The CRISPR–Cas9 technology is a versatile platform for exploring genetic networks and synthetic lethal interaction phenotypes.The search for synthetic lethality-based therapeutic strategies could be enhanced by integrating synthetic lethal interactions from three distinct sources: model organism genetic networks, human high-throughput screening and synthetic lethal predictions from statistical genetics.