Associations remained consistent after adjustment for age at diagnosis and tumour stage for all VMRs except those located at APC and HES5. The pooled HRs after adjustment for age at diagnosis and tumour stage showed that methylation was associated with overall survival for four genes: APC (HR = 1.18, 95% CI: 1.02–1.36), TMEM101 (HR = 1.23, 95% CI: 1.02–1.48), HCG4P3 (HR = 1.37, 95% CI: 1.05–1.79) and CELF2 (HR = 1.21, 95% CI: 1.02–1.43) (Table 4). Here, HES5 is linked to neoplasm.