Results showed that in the subgroup of ERα-negative tumors, a significantly higher TAM infiltration (expressed as CD163/CD68 ratio) was found in premenopausal compared to postmenopausal patients (P<0.05, Figure 6A), this implying that systemic effects of estrogens impact the tumor microenvironment, increasing the population of locally activated macrophages. Here, CD163 is linked to neoplasm.