Since BRCAness, i.e. BRCA1 inactivation (both genetic and epigenetic) can be useful as a predictive marker of response to different types of chemotherapy regimens and neoadjuvant therapy in not only heterogeneous breast28, 29 but also in other cancers such as ovarian, prostate, and non-small cell lung cancer6, we next tested whether defects in the BRCA1 gene affect the liquid-plasma-induced cell death in BRCA1-positive and BRCA1 knockdown HeLa cells. Here, BRCA1 is linked to cancer.