Further, these five genes were specifically methylated in a set of pancreatic cancers in comparison to five normal pancreatic tissues and six chronic pancreatitis tissues, although the mean DNA methylation levels of all five genes were not significantly different between normal and cancerous tissues (P = 0.051, 0.006, 0.001, 0.253, and 0.0871, for ADAMTS2, HOXA1, PCDH10, SEMA5A, and SPSB4, respectively). The gene discussed is HOXA1; the disease is chronic pancreatitis.