Cellular DNA damage response is aimed either to cause a transient or a permanent cell cycle arrest, leading to either cell death via apoptosis or cellular senescence (Feng et al., 2008; Bieging et al., 2014) or, alternatively, to prevent damaged cells from undergoing neoplastic transformation as p53 is the most frequently mutated gene in human cancers (Guimaraes and Hainaut, 2002). The gene discussed is TP53; the disease is cancer.