In particular, genetic depletion or pharmacologic inhibition of CDK12 predominantly affected the expression of DNA damage response (DDR) genes [6, 8–11], thus explaining the BRCA-like phenotype observed in human cancers harbouring mutations in the CDK12 gene [3, 12] and the synergic effect of CDK12 inhibitors administered in combination with PARP inhibitors [13–15]. This evidence concerns the gene CDK12 and cancer.