They were consistently associated with different forms of cancer (i.e. rs401681, TERT, CLPTM1L, 5p15.33 – associated with lung, bladder, pancreatic cancer, melanoma and prostate-specific antigen levels) and of chronic inflammatory diseases (i.e. rs11209026, IL23R, 1p31.3 – associated with Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, ankylosing spondylitis and psoriasis; rs10488631, IRF5,TNPO3, 7q32.1 – associated with systemic lupus erythematosus, systemic sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis and primary biliary cirrhosis; see Additional file 2 for detailed summary of pleiotropic SNPs). Here, IRF5 is linked to ulcerative colitis.