Dense infiltration of CD163+ macrophages in the TS was further associated with estrogen receptor (ER) negativity (P = .001), progesterone receptor (PR) negativity (P<.001), triple-negative/basal-like breast cancer (P<.001), inversely correlated with luminal A breast cancer (P<.001) (Table 1) and correlated with the extent of granulin (GRN) expression (P = .01) (see Additional file 3). Here, CD163 is linked to breast cancer.