In agreement with these shared cues, 5 signaling pathways (MAPK, JAK-STAT, p53, VEGF and PI3K) that were not significantly different between immunosuppressive monocytes and tumor-educated monocytes, were observed; however, we found other signaling pathways uniquely upregulated in suppressive monocytes NF-κB, TGFβ, TNFα, Hypoxia, TRAIL and EGFR (Additional file 1: Figure S5D). This evidence concerns the gene VEGFA and neoplasm.