In a follow-up study Gao et al. implicated that upregulated levels of EGF and TGF-β secreted by TAMs in direct and indirect co-culture systems with HNSCC cells induce EMT of HNSCC cells via activation of the EGFR/ERK1/2 signaling pathway [312]. Here, TGFB1 is linked to head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.