The tumor suppressor SMAR1, has an important role in cell cycle progression and apoptosis, is reported to be under-expressed in higher grades of cancer.3, 4, 5, 6, 8 Interestingly, SMAR1 is reported to be stabilized under genotoxic stress to help DNA damage repair through the recruitment of Ku-70/80.6 However, the underlying molecular mechanism of its repression in higher grades of cancer and the genotoxic stress-mediated stabilization was not clearly understood. The gene discussed is XRCC6; the disease is cancer.