title: Nucleotide Excision Repair and head and neck cancers.
abstract: Genome integrity maintenance is crucial for cell survival and for counteracting cancer onset and progression. Mammary cells invest great amount of energy in DNA repair, in order to avoid errors accumulation in DNA sequence. Nucleotide Excision Repair (NER) removes a broad spectrum of DNA damages, mainly bulky DNA lesions. Tissues of Head and Neck region are heavily exposed to bulky lesions inducing carcinogens, this making NER process of great interest in the field. Here we review the recent literature about NER in HNC and we also discuss the role played by NER in HNSCC in the chromatin context; to this aim we particularly focus on the role played by histones chaperon CAF-1, essential in restoring the chromatin structure following DNA replication and DNA damage repair, including NER. A better understanding of basic mechanisms underlying the DNA damage response, particularly involving NER, especially in the chromatin context, will provide us with new promising way to bypass the repair block, possibly becoming an unexpected mode of  "transversal" control also of the proliferative deregulation, classically observed in HNSCC.
authors.affiliation: Department of Advanced Biomedical Sciences, Pathology Section, University of Naples "Federico II", Naples, Italy.
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Merolla
authors.affiliation: Department of Advanced Biochemical Sciences, Section of Anatomic Pathology, University of Napoli Federico II, Via S Pansini 5, Napoli, Italy.
authors.forename: Massimo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mascolo
authors.affiliation: Department of Advanced Biomedical Sciences, Pathology Section, University of Naples "Federico II", Naples, Italy.
authors.forename: Gennaro
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ilardi
authors.affiliation: Department of Advanced Biomedical Sciences, Pathology Section, University of Naples "Federico II", Naples, Italy.
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Siano
authors.affiliation: Department of Advanced Biomedical Sciences, Pathology Section, University of Naples "Federico II", Naples, Italy.
authors.forename: Daniela
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Russo
authors.affiliation: Department of Advanced Biomedical Sciences, Pathology Section, University of Naples "Federico II", Naples, Italy.
authors.forename: Vincenzo
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Graziano
authors.affiliation: Istituto per l'Endocrinologia e l'Oncologia Sperimentale "Gaetano Salvatore", CNR, Napoli, Italy; Dipartimento di Medicina Molecolare e Biotecnologie Mediche, Università Federico II, Napoli, Italy.
authors.forename: Angela
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Celetti
authors.affiliation: Department of Advanced Biomedical Sciences, Pathology Section, University of Naples "Federico II", Naples, Italy, staibano@unina.it.
authors.forename: Stefania
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Staibano
mesh_terms: D004249:DNA Damage; D004260:DNA Repair; D004261:DNA Replication; D042822:Genomic Instability; D006258:Head and Neck Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans