ABSTRACT
The capacity for repair of damage in DNA may vary between clinically healthy people and in patients with different diseases and conditions, contributing to the risk for development of late-onset multifactorial disease, eligibility for different therapies and various therapy-related complications. At present, the effects of individual variance in DNA repair capacity in human disease are best studied in cancer. The first part of this paper briefly reviews the history of the field and the currently available biomarkers of individual repair capacity associated with the risk for development of cancer and other late-onset multifactorial diseases and conditions.