ASNS and cancer: It was a striking and surprising result that a considerable number of genes identified by microarray and COMPARE analyses are not linked to cancer biology, e.g. genes involved in the survival of cochlear outer and inner hair cells (SLC12A7), the active cellular uptake of carnitine (SLC22A5), regulation of sterol biosynthesis (SCAP), the synthesis of asparagines (ASNS) and regulation of gene expression (UBB), do not have obvious links to tumor diseases.