Association between newly identified variant form of DNA polymerase beta (Δ 208-304) and ovarian cancer.

Base excision repair (BER) is a key pathway for maintaining genomic stability. A key enzyme in the BER pathway is DNA polymerase beta (polβ), which removes the deoxyribose phosphate group (dRP) and fills in the gap with a nucleotide after the DNA lesion is excised. It has been shown that more than thirty percent of breast, bladder, esophageal, colon, and gastric cancer samples studied so far have exhibited DNA polymerase beta mutation.