Furthermore, Spearman correlation analyses also confirmed that the TMB values were negatively correlated with stromal CAF infiltrations as well as CAF-activating factors like TGF-β (Quante et al., 2011) and PDGF (Pietras et al., 2008) (Figure 7E), suggesting that higher TMB might be also able to intense tumor-killing effects via modulating a stromal fibroblast-weak local microenvironment. This evidence concerns the gene TGFB1 and neoplasm.