A recent study reported that mtDNA triggered IFN production in a model of radiation therapy in breast cancer cells leading to immunogenic cell death and revealed that caspase activation after MOMP does not provide sufficient proteolytic activity to dampen IFN signaling in this context (McArthur and Kile, 2020; Yamazaki et al., 2020). Here, IFNA1 is linked to breast carcinoma.