Considering that epithelial-mesenchymal transition of breast cancer cells is promoted by neutrophils and macrophages via multiple secretory factors such as S100A8/A9 proteins, tumor necrosis factor-alpha, and TGF-beta [5, 34, 35], we hypothesized that the risk of distant recurrence could be also associated with the degree of [18F]FDG uptake of BM. Here, TNF is linked to breast cancer.