Of these 16 prostate cancer samples, 15(93.8%) exhibited the downregulation of EphA5 expression than that of their respectively matched noncancerous tissues, implying that the hypermethylation of EphA5 was significantly correlated with the downregulation of EphA5 (p < 0.01) (Additional file 1: Table S1). The gene discussed is EPHA5; the disease is prostate carcinoma.