These genes are enriched in several cancer-related functional clusters, including insulin-like growth factor binding (Htra3, Igfbp5, Cyr61, Wisp1), GTP binding (Tubb6, Tgtp, Rnd1, Gbp1, Rab40b, Gbp2, Rhobtb1, Rabl3, Gbp3), cytokine activity (Clcf1, Kitl, Socs2, Cxcl5, Tnfsf11, Cxcl1, Cx3cl1, Il12a) and negative regulation of apoptosis (Cln8, Clcf1, Nuak2, Kitl, Dlx1, Notch1, Bcl2, Serpinb9, Clec2 d, Nr4a1, Fastkd2, Rassf5, Elmo1) (see Additional file 3 for complete listing of genes). This evidence concerns the gene KITLG and cancer.