Epigenetic synthetic lethality as a cancer therapeutic strategy: synergy of experimental and computational approaches

Cancer treatment is an ongoing challenge, as directly targeting oncogenic drivers is often unfeasible in many patients due to the lack of druggable targets. This has led to the exploration of alternative strategies, such as exploiting synthetic lethality (SL) relationships between genes. SL facilitates the indirect targeting of oncogenic drivers, as exemplified by the clinical success of PARP inhibitors against BRCA-mutated tumors. Advances in high-throughput perturbation screens and multi-omics technologies have deepened our understanding of SL relationships, while computational models enhance SL predictions to better reflect biological complexity. However, while numerous experimental and computational methods have been developed to identify SL interactions, difficulties remain in translating these findings into clinical applications.