With analysis of the CSMA results on basis of rank product analysis [25] of all the three cell lines, NPY was identified as the strongest common growth inhibitory siRNA hit in all the three cell lines (Figure 5B), while GPR160 had the strongest growth inhibitory effect on the cancer cell lines VCaP and LAPC-4, and an insignificant effect on the RWPE-1 epithelial cells (Figure 5B-5C), coupling with its overexpression in clinical prostate cancer samples in the Genesapiens database analysis (p = 3.10E-05, t-Test -5.749) [Additional file 5]. The gene discussed is NPY; the disease is cancer.