This technology includes inhibitors of the Eya phosphatase which can be utilized as anticancer therapy. The Eya proteins are essential co-activators of the Six1 transcription factor, a gene that is abnormally re-expressed in a large percentage of breast cancers. This over-expression plays a causal role in the initiation and metastatic development of breast cancers. The Eya family of proteins was also found to contain a unique haloacid dehalogenase phosphatase domain with protein Tyr phosphatase activity which can potentially play a role in Six1- mediated breast tumorigenesis. Recently, Eya was found to dephosphorylate the histone variant H2AX and direct cells to the DNA repair instead of apoptosis pathway in the event of DNA damage.