HOXA5 and gastric cancer: Additionally, we identified hypermethylation of the HOXA5 gene as a promising biomarker of intestinal metaplasia biomarker for the following reasons: (1) HOXA5 acts as tumor-suppressing role during the development and progression of gastric cancer [18]; (2) Loss of HOXA5 function induces a developmental defect causing Clara cells to transdifferentiated into goblet cells in the lung epithelia [19].