TP53 and cancer: In addition to somatic mutation of the p53 gene, the loss of wild-type (WT) p53 functions in human cancers can also be achieved through epigenetic silencing or disruption of pathways such as the ATM pathway that are required for p53 activation after DNA damage (Inoue et al., 2012; Muller and Vousden, 2013; Jain and Barton, 2018).