Functional annotation of their associated genes (Fig. 3a and Additional file 5: Table S4) revealed that the 434 pan-cancer hypermethylated canyon (but not cUMR) genes include a significant (p value = 2.6e-109) amount (109, i.e. ~ 43% of 256 total) of homeobox genes [29] (named as m-homeobox hereafter), a superfamily of transcription factors (TFs) that are critical for cellular growth and differentiation [30]. This evidence concerns the gene LBX1 and cancer.