TNF and cancer: Some cancer cell lines die by SM treatment as single agent.14–17 The effect has been reported to be due to autocrine TNFα production, which induces cell death in the presence of SM.16,17 The TNFα production can be mediated by accumulation of NF-κB-inducing kinase (NIK), followed by non-canonical NF-κB signaling and TNFα transcription, which occur when cIAPs no longer ubiquitinate and target NIK for degradation.17–19 However, it is not completely clear what determines if a cell responds to a SM with TNFα production.