Based on these studies, as well as our observation that TRIP13 inhibition combined with irradiation largely reduces in vitro survival, we suggest that the role of overexpressed TRIP13 in cancer may result in the recombination phenotype, similar to its physiological role during the prophase of meiosis I. As TRIP13 expression is not strictly germ cell (or cancer) specific, this recombination-promoting phenotype would thus be a germ cell/cancer specific manifestation of TRIP13 overexpression. This evidence concerns the gene TRIP13 and cancer.