RAD51 and cancer: For example, cancer cells (like TNBC) with a deficiency in homologous recombination6 proteins (such as BRCA1) can repair their DNA by relying on other highly expressed HR-related proteins (such as RAD51 or PARP1) or on factors that support rescue DNA repair pathways such as alternative non-homologous end-joining (alt-NHEJ) that can rescue resected DNA strand breaks.