Interestingly, while hypermethylation of NOTUM and APCDD1 was associated with CIMP positivity (online supplementary figure 4), there was no significant difference in methylation of AXIN2 and NKD1 between CIMP+ve and CIMP−ve tumours, indicating CIMP-independent selective methylation of these genes (figure 3B). This evidence concerns the gene AXIN2 and neoplasm.