TNF and neoplasm: Various inflammatory mediators, such as tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), transforming growth factor β (TGF-β), interleukin-1 (IL-1), and IL-6, have been reported to promote circulating tumor cell survival and the epithelial-mesenchymal transition, which play an important role in cellular proliferation, migration, invasion and immunosurveillance of NSCLC [37, 38].