WNK2 and cancer: Because of the use of such a small gene list, no pathways reached a level of significance (see Additional file 8); however, we noted that several genes are associated with cancer-related pathways, such as cell cycle regulation (cyclin D1 (CCND1) and YWHAZ), mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling (fibroblast growth factor 2 (FGF2) and DOK4), nucleotide excision repair (RAD23 homolog B (RAD23B)) and p53 interactions (CCND1, CBX7, enhancer of zeste homolog 2 (Drosophila) (EZH2), WW domain containing E3 ubiquitin protein ligase 1 (WWP1) and PTB4A1).