Several genes in the 500 kb vicinity of HOXA5 (i.e., HOXA3, HOXA9, HOXA7, HOXA1, EVX1) were also associated with high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol efflux capacity, BMI, and pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (Additional file 2: Supplementary Table S9B). This evidence concerns the gene HOXA7 and pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma.