Comparing the expression level of HOXA9, HOXA10, and HOXA11 in tumors and their paired normal samples revealed that the expression of each HOXA9 and HOXA10 gene was significantly lower in the tumor samples than their paired normal samples (p = 1.3 × 10−14 for HOXA9, p = 7.6 × 10−9 for HOXA9, n = 49, paired t test) (Additional file 1: Figure S1A). The gene discussed is HOXA9; the disease is neoplasm.