POLQ and acute myeloid leukemia: To repair numerous DSBs AML cells may activate the DSB repair mechanisms involving RAD51-mediated homologous recombination (HR), DNA-PK -mediated non-homologous end-joining (NHEJ) and DNA polymerase theta (Polθ, encoded by POLQ gene)-dependent microhomology-mediated end-joining (TMEJ) [13] Therefore, we also tested if expression levels of DSB repair genes had a survival prognostication value.