We found several putative SOX17 binding sites in promoter regions (− 1000 ~ + 1) of genes involved in HR pathway, such as BRCA1 (breast cancer 1, early onset), BRCA2 (breast cancer 2, early onset), RAD51 (RAD51 homolog (S. cerevisiae)), and NHEJ pathway, including KU80 (X-ray repair complementing defective repair in Chinese hamster cells 5 (double-strand-break rejoining)) and DNAPK (protein kinase, DNA-activated, catalytic polypeptide). The gene discussed is SOX17; the disease is breast cancer.